Coronavirus update for our care homes
We continue to monitor and keep up to date with the government guidance and best practice within the sector.
Our pandemic planning group has met regularly and continues to meet throughout these challenging times to ensure we are doing all that we can to keep our residents, staff and visitors safe. We are ensuring we have a good and ongoing supply of PPE, have implemented extra cleaning regimes and have good infection control practices in place throughout our care homes. We are continuing to carry out internal audits and monitor our practices to ensure quality care is being delivered.
Improvements to visitor arrangements
At present we have been enabling visits to take place in our care homes on patios or in the garden of our care homes. These have proved very popular and we’ve received really positive feedback in most of the homes. As the winter months approach we are making preparations to improve the meeting arrangements.
All four care homes are set to receive a visitor pod in the next coming weeks. The pod will be in the form of a garden summer house, fully insulated, heated and installed with an internal screen to ensure residents can meet with their loved ones in a safe environment.
Two of our homes are also in the process of creating ‘internal’ visitor spaces in addition to the visitor pods which will expand the ability for meeting even further.
We know how important visits are to our residents and relatives and we’re doing all that we can in a risk based way to ensure they take place. We ensure that where one of our residents is sadly reaching the end of their life ‘in room’ visits take place with visitors in full PPE. Our visitor policy currently exceeds the government guidance by enabling more than one person to visit our residents, and it includes children from the same household. We assess each situation individually to ensure we are providing a person centred approach and making sure we keep everyone safe.
Admissions
We have recently opened our doors again to accepting new residents. We consulted with our existing residents and families to ensure they supported our decision. We’re really keen to welcome new residents to join our existing homes and enjoy the experiences that we have to offer. New residents will be asked to take a Covid test and be cared for in isolation for the first 14 days of their stay with us. We will ensure they do not feel isolated and have support on hand through daily video/phone calls with family and loved ones, personalised activities and in-room dining service to get them settled in.
Testing
We have, like many other care homes across the country, signed up for and are receiving regular Covid testing for both our staff and residents. Our staff are tested on a weekly basis and our residents on a monthly cycle. This is helping us to ensure we are Covid free in our care homes and keeping everyone safe.
Thank you
We just wanted to say a big thank you to our colleagues who have worked tirelessly during these unprecedented times to not only keep our residents safe, but also to ensure our residents are living life to the full! They’ve adapted their roles overnight by becoming musical entertainers, hairdressers and chiropodists – just to name a few! We have an exceptionally dedicated team of staff who put our residents first.
We’d also like to say a big thank you to our relatives, friends and local communities who have given us wonderful messages of support, donated gifts and sent cards. These have all helped to keep staff motivated, particularly during some quite challenging times.
Our care homes would love to continue to hear from the local community, relatives and friends. Some of our residents are regularly writing through our penpal scheme. If you’re interested in writing to a resident in a care home or would like to send a picture/drawing, please write to any of our care homes they’d love to hear from you.