Sick relatives will still be isolated by harmful Covid visiting policies

sir – I currently have a very sick relative in hospital suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and an aggressive cancer. Due to Covid-19 the current visiting regime allows one dedicated visitor. It appears that many hospitals will prefer to keep this system in place once the Covid threat has diminished.

Not only is the policy detrimental for the patient, particularly one suffering with dementia or a terminal illness, but it also places huge pressure on the nominated person, who may be distressed seeing the deterioration of their loved one daily. Should they be unable to visit through illness no replacement is allowed.

How can this be seen as humane and a reasonable way to proceed in a post-pandemic future?

Geoffrey Malkie

Manchester

sir – It is 101 weeks since I was first refused entry to the care home where my husband of 50 years now lives.

While everyone else is being told they are more or less free to do as they wish – to move about, go to work, socialise, mix with others – thousands of residents in care homes have no such freedom.

Every time more than one person among the residents or the staff tests positive for Covid, the home goes into “outbreak status”. This is in effect another lockdown, with residents unable to leave, or even at times move about the home, while only one essential caregiver is allowed to visit each person.

This has to be done by booking a time, taking a lateral flow test, having your temperature taken, filling in paperwork and wearing a mask throughout the visit, which can only be in the resident’s room. Other visits can be facilitated through use of a visitor’s pod, with a screen.

No hairdresser, chiropodist or entertainer is allowed in, so staff have to fill all those essential capacities as they have been doing for most of two years now. I have nothing but admiration for the management and staff who have administered this state of affairs with all the loving care they can muster.

But they have witnessed, as have I, the mental deterioration of their residents under these inhumane regimes. In the early days we could see the necessity for extreme caution. No longer.

Brief respites from outbreak status have made us all realise how much we have lost in two years that can never be regained. My husband and I celebrated our golden wedding during this time. One of the few moments when my husband has seen my face without a mask in two years was when we sat with a lovely surprise tea the staff provided for us.

Sustaining these restrictions on the lives of so many thousands of elderly and unwell citizens is now unwarranted. I see no necessity for my visits to my husband to be the reason he is once again confined to his room because I am not allowed to move about the home.

Anna M Bratby

Alconbury Weston, Huntingdonshire