Patients still isolated
SIR – Visiting restrictions in health and social-care settings are having a devastating impact (“No patient should have to go alone to appointments, says chief nurse,” report, April 22).
It is deeply concerning that visiting is still forbidden for many hospital patients. According to another of your reports earlier this month, one in eight hospital trusts prevents relatives visiting patients, despite the ending of all community Covid restrictions. This is also true of countless care homes, where rolling lockdowns and overinterpretation of testing guidelines are leading to isolation, neglect and abuse of vulnerable residents.
The freedom to visit loved ones in health and social care settings is a fundamental right. To deny it is inhumane and cruel. Unsurprisingly, isolation and loss of social contact have a devastating impact on physical and psychological health. Without the support of family and friends, health outcomes are poorer, as patients and residents lose hope, sometimes even the will to live, and often refuse treatment. Campaigners also warn of widespread and shocking safeguarding issues involving medication, hydration, hygiene and lack of basic care.
Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 could and should have protected against this situation arising. Instead, this legislation is being wilfully misinterpreted as an excuse to keep people isolated in care homes and hospitals as if they were prisons.
We are failing the most vulnerable members of our society. Families must be allowed full access to support and advocate for their loved ones when they need it most. It is now beyond urgent that the Government, local authorities, the NHS, the Care Quality Commission and other regulatory bodies take action to end all unlawful visiting restrictions and stop this unnecessary suffering and neglect.
Sir Graham Brady MP (Con)
The Earl of Leicester (Con) Emma Lewell-buck MP (Lab) Esther Mcvey MP (Con)
Iain Duncan Smith MP (Con) Lord Frost (Con) and 14 others; see telegraph.co.uk