The Government has backed down on a rule forcing care home residents who go on outdoor visits to self-isolate for two weeks afterwards. But the new guidance, which has yet to be released in full, may vary for different areas. The Guardian has the story.
A rule forcing care home residents who go on any sort of outside visit to then spend two weeks in their room is being scrapped, the Government announces today. Campaigners have hailed the reversal, with one group saying the regulation had turned “care homes into prisons”.
Under new guidance to begin from Tuesday, people living in care homes in England will not have to self-isolate if they leave the home to be in the garden of a relative or friend, or to visit outdoor spaces such as parks and beaches.
They must be accompanied by either a care worker or a named visitor, and must socially distance when away from the home. They cannot meet in groups, as currently permitted for others outside, and can go indoors only to use toilets.
The full guidance has not yet been set out, and could vary for areas with high or fast-rising levels of coronavirus infection, or the presence of variants of the virus being monitored by the Government.
John’s Campaign, which pushes for better visiting rights, launched a legal challenge arguing that the mandatory self-isolation brought in three weeks ago, regardless of the age or health of the individual, was discriminatory and unlawful.
Nicci Gerrard from John’s Campaign said the change of stance, announced by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), was “a chink of light for residents of care homes and their families, and a victor for all those people who have been eloquent in their campaign against the 14-day rule”.
She said: “But why did this rule ever exist in the first place – depriving people of their liberty, turning care homes into prison, treating one group of people with such cruelty?”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: The latest issue of Private Eye (1546) has discovered why Dr Éamonn O’Moore, who leads the Public Health England (PHE) social care response to Covid, favoured self-isolation rules in the first place.
A look at Dr O’Moore’s LinkedIn profile offers an explanation: he writes that he also leads PHE in “other places of detention”, including prisons. No wonder he’s so keen on solitary confinement…
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There’s still serious questions need to be asked about what happened in the care homes last April. That huge spike in deaths was not the result of this illusive phantom virus, it was what can only be described as euthanasia, or even murder.
Euthanasia by government edict. “Care” homes are a no go area for the old and the vulnerable.
a.k.a. Crimes against humanity!
It’s magnificent that we have allowed the clock to be turned back centuries, beyond capital punishment, Bedlams, public executions, slavery, the Age of Enlightenment, and all the way back to the Dark Ages.For a supposedly Christian country, the cruelty, physical and mental. inflicted on both young and old, gives the lie to any concept that we are in any way civilised. The behaviour of politicians, the laughingly-named “medical profession” and NHS, the churches and several other institutions, including the “caring” ones, is beyond contempt.
I never expected to live in a country which now uses as its paradigms the behaviour and standards of the CCP, Iron Curtain countries and nazidom, but we’ve managed it in just one year. People are now supposed to be grateful for some temporary mitigations and some indeed are, in a display of collective insanity. Gadarene Swine, one and all.
Bloody well put.
I still don’t understand why this phantom virus makes the news.
Whoops, silly me… Billy Boy, the WEF and the rest.
Very well said.
To merely state that you are a ‘caring’ person or organisation, to virtue signal it, is enough nowadays; even things like bottles of shampoo have a ‘careline’ number on them! Why?! Is there somebody manning the line day and night in case you get a bit in your eye?
There seems to be no need to actually demonstrate it by your actions and pointing out the hypocrisy is futile when faced with the gargantuan wave of gushing public sentimentality that seemingly permeates everything.
I loathe it.
Well said. What has happened and is still happening to the elderly is nothing short of a tragedy. The fact that the Tyrants in power have made me part of it makes me so angry. Lockdownistas use the elderly covid figures when it suits them but the truth is the morons don’t really care so long as they can be jabbed and go on holiday.
They caved in because they knew it was illegal.
They have now replaced one set of illegal rules with another set of illegal rules
Prison will be too good for them when justice catches up
If they had committed no other crimes, the Fascist swine deserve to hang just for what they’ve done to the old.
Slightly OT, but my 50yo diabetic son, who lives alone, has a series of worrying symptoms, including some red flags. He is hyperglycaemic and too exhausted to work. After self-certifying sick, he now needs a doctor’s certificate. He cannot get a GP appointment until after the middle of May – weeks after his employer needs the sick note. His phone calls to the surgery have been met with a brick wall. A little while ago, he had to take himself to A&E for a diagnosis and subsequent colonoscopy which found that he was suffering from colitis. Is the GP system broken? How much has our response to covid been responsible for this?
These regulations seem to be falling right now. Govt rolling back on masks for school children because of no evidence or assessment. SAGE has admitted very little evidence of indoor hospitality spreading virus. When in a hole stop digging.
They cannot do this, they cannot do that. These people are guilty of the crime of getting old! Many if not most of them would willingly take a risk for a bit of ‘life’ in their current existence. Plus as most of them will have been jabbed what’s the risk? (Rhetorical question!).
O’ Nomore “leads PHE in other places of detention… “….after all, they call it Lockdown. When will fools take notice?
‘Care homes’ eh? I think the correct description would be ‘unlawful prisons’
I have, for a long time referred to them as ‘don’t care homes’. I have also made up my mind to do myself in should I ever be unfortunate enough to need to be interned in one.
Eamon o’moore should stand trial for crimes against humanity, if he was the one who mandated this cruelty on the frail and elderly who suffered under his decision. A friend in a care home was locked in her room for 14 days after attending her husband’s funeral. Surely this cannot be considered acceptable by anyone. She then went to the dentist a month later and was locked down in her room, alone for fourteen days. She is now severely depressed, and having trouble concentrating. She is 94 years old.
Seems to be standard practice now. My grandma is 83 and has vascular dementia manifesting in an inability to separate dreams from reality. If care home staff or residents return a positive test then they get locked in their rooms for two weeks. Of course over the past year it’s happened several times! Under normal circumstances you’d need several assessments involving health care professionals before that sort of action would be approved as it’s both cruel and dangerous due to risk of falls, not being able to monitor residents’ health properly, etc. Utter madness.