Coronavirus: Care home owner would close to keep residents safe
- Published
A County Down nursing home owner has said he is prepared to close the facility to visitors at any time to keep residents safe.
Mark King, who owns Manor Healthcare, said he would have no hesitation shutting down with immediate effect if even one Covid case is detected in any of his three care homes.
He said while the visiting was "not ideal" it gave a "sense of normality".
A small number of care homes in NI have stopped visits.
This is a precautionary measure as a number of clusters have emerged.
The number of confirmed new cases of Covid-19 has increased in recent days.
On Wednesday, 29 new cases of coronavirus were recorded by the Department of Health in Northern Ireland, bringing its total to 6,217. That means 223 in just over a week.
Not worth the 'risk'
According to guidance issued by the Department of Health (DH) in July, owners of care and nursing homes can use their own discretion to halt visits but should keep families informed at all times.
Mr King said residents at his County Down home must come first.
"If there was any Covid at all we would have no hesitation in closing it down to visits," he said.
Mark King said his home has had no cases of Covid and he will not risk that happening
"We have had neither a Covid-related death or case and I do not want to risk all that for the sake of a few visits."
At the moment, only a small number of homes in NI are closed to visits. Some are precautionary even though there are no positive cases within the home.
At the weekend a nursing home closed in west Belfast after a number of cases were confirmed in the community.
According to Department of Health guidelines, while the first priority continues to be reducing the risk of Covid-19 transmission, individual owners should carry out their own risk assessment as it is acknowledged every home is different.
Esther Lutton, whose father Sam is a resident in Rathfriland Manor Nursing home, told BBC News NI that families must be kept informed as much as possible if homes are shutting down to visitors again.
"Daddy is used to seeing us. There's four of us and he is used to seeing us at least five times a week," she said.
Esther Lutton says families should be kept up to date with any changes
"Going from four or five times a week to nothing is just awful. I just hope we don't return to those days again," she said.
"While this home is brilliant at keeping in contact, I understand many others aren't.
"If you don't hear from them, you don't know what is going on and your mind is overtaken and you are left worrying - so it is essential that they keep in touch with families," she added.
Sam McIlwrath, 84, is able to see his family as the care home has a specially-adapted pod that can be accessed from a different part of the building.
There are stringent rules including visitors having their temperatures taken, hand sanitisation areas and the pod is cleaned thoroughly between visits.
Age NI chief executive Linda Robinson said that while the welfare and safety of older people is always paramount, people's rights must always be respected.
"Our belief is residents and other people in general need to have informed decisions about what is happening to them or to their wellbeing, and that they need to be involved in those decisions and that communication with families and care homes will aid and support that," she told BBC News NI.
But keeping homes open and running safely is expensive and labour intensive.
At Rathfriland Manor, residents are tested each month and staff once a fortnight.
Staff at the care home carry out the testing, which according to Mr King just adds further pressure to an already stretched service.
"I liken it to spinning plates and we have just had two more plates added to the spinning process. The fear is that some of those plates will fall down due to the amount of additional work that is being thrown at individuals," he said.
Mr King said that businesses like his are losing revenue each month.
"We keep to the guidelines we have to in order to keep us all safe but that requires additional PPE and staff to make it all happen"
- Published6 July 2020
