Coronavirus: 'Dad doesn't understand why we're not visiting him'

John has been living in a care home for two years

Donna Duffy's father John turned 70 last November.

As a young man, he travelled the world with the Merchant Navy, before returning to Belfast to work in the hospitality industry.

He would tell his wife and two daughters of the adventures he had had, and the poverty he'd seen in places like India.

But now they tell him the stories. John has had dementia for 16 years.

For the last two years, he has been a resident at Brooklands Care Home in West Belfast, where the family say he has been happy and settled.

Between Donna and her sister and mother, someone would have visited John every day, sometimes twice a day.

'We would have liked time to prepare daddy'

But visiting at the home stopped on 12 March. On that day, the Department of Health published guidance saying there was not a blanket ban on visiting, because of the important role it plays in mental health for all concerned, but people should follow localised guidelines.

John doesn't understand why his family is not coming in anymore. Donna says tears have trailed down his face when they're video-calling him.

"He has dementia, so he couldn't understand what was happening on the outside, he doesn't have the cognitive ability," she said.

"We as a family knew the home would be closing, but we just would have liked time to prepare daddy."

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The owners of Brooklands Care Home, Conway Group Healthcare, said "the decision to suspend visiting, was certainly not a decision that was taken lightly".

"All relatives were informed immediately and…while this situation is most certainly not ideal for residents, it is something that was accepted as one of many necessary actions to attempt to prevent the spread of the virus," said the owners.

Protecting residents

Donna said the staff "went above and beyond" in caring for her father, but she feels more could have been done by others to protect residents in care homes.

"The issue for us as a family is that we feel residents and care homes were let down by the care home owners, the trusts, RQIA (Regulation & Quality Improvement Authority). That's who let care home residents down, not staff who went out of their way to do their best to look after sick residents."

The owners of Brooklands care home say they are working closely with health bodies

The owners of Brooklands Care Home said they are working very closely with the Public Health Agency, the [South Eastern] Health Trust and the RQIA in relation to managing both suspected and confirmed cases of Covid-19.

They added that all suspected Covid-19 cases and all confirmed Covid-19 cases are cared for in their own rooms and any residents returning from hospital are also isolated in their own rooms.

The RQIA said that although it was directed to step down its regular inspection programme, where there have been specific safety concerns, inspections have been conducted.

It said it is giving advice, support and guidance to every care home in Northern Ireland.

The South Eastern Trust said it is currently providing staff to five care homes across the area and, to date, more than 286 shifts in eight care homes have been covered by various HSCT staff.

A trust spokesperson said Brooklands had been provided with staffing support as requested.