Chesterfield MP calls for care home residents’ family members to be made key workers to allow meaningful visits

Instead, many have stood at windows – feeling helpless as they watch their relatives deteriorate from a distance.

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Now, Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins is demanding an urgent change to the rules to enable more meaningful contact.

He said: “One of the most heartbreaking aspects of the pandemic is the thousands of families who are desperate to visit their loved ones in care homes but have been unable to do so.

“The Government has suggested floor to ceiling screens for indoor visits or outdoor ‘window’ visits but, while this may be suitable for some residents, that won’t work for many people with dementia and because of the winter weather.

“The Government should instead designate a single family member as a key worker – making them a priority for weekly testing and proper personal protective equipment in the same way as should happen for care home staff.”

This week provided some hope as the Government started a pilot scheme giving key visitors access to tests to enable meaningful contact across 20 care homes in Hampshire, Devon and Cornwall.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the goal was to ensure the testing is available in every care home by Christmas.

But it may still be some weeks before Derbyshire could see this – as a phased rollout across the country depends on the pilot’s success and transmission rates following lockdown.

Mr Perkins added: “It is unforgivable that the Government has left this issue for so many months without coming up with an adequate plan.

“Huge care needs to be taken of course – but it shouldn’t have been a choice between isolating elderly and vulnerable people or spreading the virus further.

“Care home staff have often done a wonderful job in keeping residents stimulated and engaged, but being unable to see any of their family is having a terrible toll on residents’ mental and physical wellbeing.”

An online petition – which calls for key worker status to be granted to relatives of care home residents, among other things – has been signed by nearly 200,000 people.

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