Battle won to free care home residents from self-isolation

VULNERABLE residents will finally no longer have to selfisolate for 14 days if they leave their care home, following a hard-fought campaign.

In theory it means families are now free to take relatives out for walks, meals and visits without the need for them to quarantine on their return.

Number 10 last night confirmed the move. Exceptions still include “high-risk visits”, like overnight stays in hospital.

And it remains to be seen how care home providers interpret or obey the new guidance.

Every care home resident should also be able to nominate a friend or family member to provide extra care on their visits. These essential care givers can continue to visit during outbreaks.

They are intended to provide additional support from someone with a unique personal relationship with the resident.

The easing of restrictions affecting 400,000 of the most vulnerable comes a week after

this newspaper told how campaigners argued guidance on self-isolation had no legal basis.

The move is a victory for John’s Campaign which was set for a High Court showdown with the Department of Health and Social Care over the “damaging and grotesque” rules – particularly for dementia patients.

John’s Campaign co-founder Julia Jones said: “The 14 days of isolation for people who are not ill has no basis in law and is often being inflicted without comprehension or consent.”

John’s Campaign even published a book chronicling the toll the isolation period had taken on residents and their families.

The Holding Pen recounts the testimonies of distraught families telling of bewilderment, anguish, and deterioration of people who cannot understand why the “punishment” was occurring.

Ms Jones added: “It represents a systemic abuse which should fill its perpetrators with shame. It’s an avoidable harm and a wholesale flouting of individual human rights. It must go and never return.”