Visiting Policy
Contact with relatives and friends is fundamental to care home residents’ health and wellbeing and visiting is encouraged.
Where visiting is modified during an outbreak of COVID-19 or where a care home resident has confirmed COVID-19, every resident will be enabled to continue to receive one visitor at a time inside the care home.
End-of-life visiting will always be supported, and testing is not required in any circumstances for an end-of-life visit.
Visitors should not enter the care home if they are feeling unwell, even if they have tested negative for COVID-19, are fully vaccinated and have received their booster. Transmissible viruses such as flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and norovirus can be just as dangerous to care home residents as COVID-19. If visitors have any symptoms that suggest other transmissible viruses and infections, such as cough, high temperature, diarrhoea or vomiting, they should avoid the care home until at least 5 days after they feel better.
Visitors are encouraged to wear a face mask when visiting the care home, particularly when moving through the home. Individual approaches may be needed as the wearing of face masks may cause distress to some residents. In circumstances where wearing a face mask causes distress to a resident, face masks may be removed when the visit is not in a communal area of the care home. However, other mitigations should be considered, including limiting close contact, increased ventilation (while maintaining a comfortable temperature) and transparent face masks.
Some residents may need support with personal care from a visitor with whom they have a close relationship. Visitors who are providing personal care should have a negative COVID-19 lateral flow test result from a lateral flow device before entering the care home, unless medically exempt. If these visitors attend once or twice a week, they should only test on that day (testing can be completed at home or on site). If they visit more than twice a week, they should test a maximum of twice weekly, 3 to 4 days apart. Visitors providing personal care should show proof of their negative test result prior to entry. This may be an email or text from reporting the result, a date stamped photo of the test cartridge, or any other proof. If they are not able to produce a negative test, they may be asked to reschedule. In addition to negative test results, we ask all visitors to wear face masks, in addition to other PPE, if they are providing personal care, to ensure visits can happen safely. This should be based on individual assessments, taking into account any distress caused to residents by use of PPE or detrimental impact on communication.
Children under the age of 11, who are visiting the care home, may choose whether to wear face masks. However, they should be encouraged to follow the IPC guidelines such as practising hand hygiene.
Care home residents will no longer be asked to isolate following high-risk visits out of the care home (including following emergency hospital stays) and will not be asked to take a test following a visit out.