Families reunited
CARE HOME RESIDENTS TESTED FOR CORONAVIRUS AND MEET FAMILY FOR FIRST TIME IN WEEKS
THERE were emotional scenes at a care home where residents were allowed to meet family members for the first time in weeks - though it was at a distance.
The Eothen care home in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, is carrying out routine coronavirus testing of staff and residents, and so far none of the 33 people who live there have come down with the virus.
The management team has now allowed family members to meet their loved ones face-to-face outside, while maintaining safety standards.
Care home manager Dawn Esslemont explained that visitors were asked to make sure they felt fully well and were temperature-tested upon arrival. The visits were by appointment only.
They could then go through a side gate into the garden of the home where they could see their relative while maintaining a two-metre gap, with the strict rule of no physical contact.
Mrs Esslemont said: “Because we have been so lucky not to have any coronavirus in the home - none of the residents have any symptoms we have taken the small steps forward to make sure residents can have access to their relatives.
“It’s lovely for the residents to see them face-to-face, we have been working very hard trying to keep them in touch via phone, FaceTime and Zoom, but they are not the same.
“There’s no hugs, kisses or touching as we have to be careful, we need to take little steps forward.”
Among the first visitors were John Yeoman, 62, and his wife Denise, 63, who were visiting his 90-year-old mother Margaret.
Mrs Esslemont said: “You could see the emotion, and it was lovely to see that.”
The manager was full of praise for the efforts of her 42 members of staff who have shielded themselves at home and stuck to the guidelines to protect the residents, aged between their 70s and 105, who they look after.
She said: “They have pulled together. It has been extremely hard, worrying about coming to work and supporting the residents as best we can, then worrying about possibly taking it home to the family.
“I think the staff have made a lot of commitment to the home and they have done a fabulous job.”
Meanwhile, a small study carried out in London has found that almost two thirds of care home residents who tested positive for coronavirus had either no symptoms or not the typical ones.
The death rate at four London nursing homes involved in the research was three times higher than in previous years, and around half of the deaths were attributed to Covid19 on the death certificate.
Those behind the study said “regular, systematic testing of all residents and staff regardless of symptoms” is urgently needed to control the spread of the virus in such environments.
Researchers said each of the nursing homes had an outbreak of Covid19, and 103 people died out of a total population across all four homes of 394 residents between March 1 and May 1.
More than half of those who died had dementia, the study found, involving a team of academics from the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI), GPs, infectious diseases experts, a geriatric clinical outreach team and local authority colleagues.