Families call for changes to rules on 'outbreaks' in care homes
From Monday 31 January, care home residents can have unlimited visitors
Last updated 29th Jan 2022
Families in West Yorkshire are calling for changes to rules on 'outbreaks' in care homes.
From Monday 31 January, care home residents can have unlimited visitors, while self-isolation periods will be cut from 14 days to 10 for those who test positive for the virus.
Care homes will have to follow outbreak management rules for 14, rather than 28, days.
Bruce Cutts is from Hebden Bridge, his mum has been living in a care home since the start of the pandemic.
"They are not items in storage, they are people with lives."
It's now been in an outbreak since the 23rd December 2021.
He said:
"They had an outbreak on the 23rd of December, and since then the home has been under virtual lockdown, with every week or so, a new member of staff testing positive.
"Under these new 14 day rolling lockdowns, I can't even visit my mum in the garden, we can't sit outside in the fresh air and have a visit, I can't take her for a walk round the garden, because its against the rules."
He tells us a solution to this is to rely on testing and vaccinations, like the rest of society:
"If I want to take mum out, to come to our house for a Sunday dinner for example, I do a lateral flow test before I go and get her, she does a lateral flow test before she leaves the home, and then when I take her back in the evening she does a lateral flow test and another in the morning, job done.
"It's inhumane, while the rest of society is going out to nightclubs, going to pubs, going out for pubs, the people who need to enjoy the last bit of their life are being locked in over heated rooms, confused about what they've done wrong.
"They are not items in storage, they are people with lives."