Covid: Wakefield care home's visiting booth gets big response

A West Yorkshire care home which built its own sealed visiting booth said it has been inundated with messages from other homes asking how it was done.

The wood and plastic booth was built around a patio door at Vicarage Court, Featherstone, in under three hours.

Director Jagjit Singh, who built the pod with a staff member, posted a picture on the home's Facebook page and it got thousands of views and messages.

Almost 50 care homes have been in touch to ask where they can get one.

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The booth - which was decorated by residents - is fully sealed and allows family members to visit their loved ones indoors and speak through a screen.

Mr Singh said he used the thinnest possible wood and Perspex to help with communication while keeping the pod totally sealed.

He said: "We're a family run home and have always prided ourselves on our attention to detail.

"The new national guidelines have meant that only very limited visits are allowed for palliative care and the majority of residents can only have Zoom calls.

"But that's just not the same.

"We thought we could come up with a better solution than some of the outdoor sheds that we'd seen - especially as it's getting cold. We did not think that was very dignified."

He said the pod has been fully booked by families for the 30-minute slots which allow for full cleaning between visits.

Mr Singh has built another which will start to be used by some of the home's 65 residents next week.

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