‘I’VE HAD TO BEG, CRY AND PLEAD TO VISIT MY HUSBAND’
AFORMER dementia ward manager has only seen her husband once, “face-toface”, since the first lockdown started, even though he’s just a mile and a half away.
Jenny Davies, 70, who worked at Tonna psychiatric hospital for 20 years, lives just a mile and a half away from The Hollins Park Centre in Cimla, where her husband of 30 years, Meiron, has been staying for the past three years.
Former engineering manager Meiron had an emergency crisis in 2017 and was admitted to Neath Port Talbot Hospital, after which his mental health declined rapidly.
The 78-year-old, who has five great-grandchildren, was diagnosed with vascular dementia and moved to Hollins Park, and wife Jenny and his daughter Julie Jones would visit him regularly at the facility.
But when the Covid lockdown struck their visits were strictly limited; Jenny had a personal meeting in March, after which they have had two window visits in May and July, both of which have left Mr Davies distressed because of the distance they were kept at.
Since then, tough lockdown rules have meant they have been unable to see each other, and Mrs Davies said it was only after she complained that she was allowed a short 15-minute indoor meeting with her husband in September.
The operator of the home has said it has operated visitation practice “in line with best practice and according to the Care Inspectorate Wales and Environmental Health”.
But, drawing from her years of experience, Mrs Davies said facilities needed to take a holistic approach to how they treated their patients, and questioned the inflexibility of the rules.
She said: “I loved my job, and relatives of patients are part of the job. You have to take a holistic approach, you can’t leave relatives out of the equation. They are a big part of caring. Relatives know things staff will never know, no matter how good staff are, they are not going to know everything. And I know my husband.
“I part-retired in 2012 and he wasn’t quite right then, and when I fully retired in 2014 I looked after him. He had a good level of function, but in July 2017, he had an emergency situation and was taken by ambulance to Neath Port Talbot Hospital.
“He then went into a rapid decline, but I didn’t realise then he wasn’t coming home.”
She said she was originally against a nursing home, but he ended up going to Hollins Park which is close to where they live in Cadoxton.
“When lockdown first began, I had a visit with him in March, and since then I’ve had only two window visits. The last one was very distressing, we were outside and he asked if we could come in out of the pouring rain, but we weren’t allowed, which left him feeling very dejected.”
She added: “I originally went along with it. I accepted it. We did what we were told, because it made sense. But now it has gone on so long you have to think of mental health of residents, as well as keeping them safe.
“It is nothing against the carers.
“In September it was our wedding anniversary and I was allowed in the room but only for 15 minutes before there was a bang on the door. We weren’t near any other residents or staff and had full PPE. We are not non-essential visitors, we are family and care givers.”
She said some care homes in England were letting people in.
“The real problem is there is no visiting. The Government is stopping us going into nursing homes. I had to beg, cry and plead to go and see him. We were out of the worst of lockdown at that point.
“I don’t know the people looking after my husband, I have never met them. It is very distressing not seeing him for so long.
“The Welsh Government is saying you can’t go in, but you can go inside on compassionate grounds. But it’s my husband’s birthday next week and I asked if I could visit and the answer came back no. There is no accounting for vaccines, and I’ve just had mine.
“He has been alone for a year, with no visit for his birthday or for Christmas. I can’t see anyway out of it. I am going to have to move him to a home which is more sympathetic to visits. It has been horrendous.”
The family said they had been supported by Rights for Residents, a campaign group calling for a change to restrictions to people visiting relatives in nursing and care homes.
Ben Jenkins, of Cherish Care Homes, which runs Hollins Park Care Centre, said: “We have operated visitation practice in line with best practice and according to the Care Inspectorate Wales and Environmental Health.
“Our visitation guidance complies with Level 4 areas, which is all of Wales, and that means no indoor visitation can occur unless it is on compassionate grounds, which is principally end of life.
“We have applied for a visitation pods scheme, but we do not have them at the moment. We have no indoor space we can safely install with access from outside. Any visitation would have to comply with rules at the time, and we would not have the authority for any visitation that breached Welsh Government guidelines.
“Hollins Park is a 90-bed facility, which means there is high level of demand to visit, and that would mean a high level of footfall. We have to do everything we can to comply with guidance”.
A Welsh Government spokesman added: “This is an incredibly difficult time for people living in care homes who have not been able to see their families.
“We need to strike a balance between protecting people from coronavirus and protecting their health and well-being through vital contact with loved ones.
“Our guidance on care home visits is clear that while cases are very high and while we are at alert level four, indoor visits should only take place in exceptional circumstances.
“These include – but are not limited to – end of life. This has been the case throughout the pandemic period.
“Care homes are asked to consider such requests sensitively and on an individual basis.
“At alert level four, outdoor visits and visits in a visitor pod can take place after a risk assessment has taken place. We are unable to comment on individual cases but are corresponding with the family directly.”