Covid: Daughter calls for care home guidance to be reviewed

Beccy Stacey says she wants to see visiting rules changed so that she and her siblings can all visit their parents

A woman whose parents live in a care home is calling on the government to review Covid visiting guidance.

Beccy Stacey is allowed to visit her parents at a North Somerset care home during a coronavirus outbreak, but the rest of her family are not.

She said the home was in "rolling lockdown" due to rising infections and her parents were "lonely and upset".

The Department for Health and Social Care said outbreak measures were in place "to protect the most vulnerable".

'Sobbing'

Ms Stacey said her parents, Avril and Royston, were the "forgotten victims" of the pandemic and had been left "distressed" they were unable to see extended family for the third Easter in a row at St Monica's Trust residents village in Sandford.

She said she wanted guidance for managing visits during outbreaks to be "removed completely".

"They are missing out on family life, their friends, my brother and sister, grandchildren. They are just being left behind from society," she said.

Ms Stacey says the care home looks after her parents well but they are "distressed" when they can't see family

Ms Stacey added: "Dad gets very emotional and upset. When I leave him he's sobbing.

"It's causing loneliness. It's heartbreaking as he's missing out on family occasions and there's no end in sight."

Government guidance recommends that during an outbreak in a care home, there should be one "essential care giver" and that "outbreak restrictions may be lifted if 10 days have passed since the onset of symptoms in the most recent case of infection".

Ms Stacey said she had written to local MP Jacob-Rees Mogg about the issue, who said he "sympathised" with her and would pass her letter to Health Secretary Sajid Javid.

A Department for Health and Social Care spokesman said: "This has been a longstanding clinical response to any infectious illness, not just Covid.

"Even during a Covid outbreak, we are clear that every resident can continue to receive one visitor inside the care home," they added.