“Contact with and reassurance from loved-ones is incredibly important to all of us, but it is especially critical for people with dementia”
Daisy Cooper, the MP for St Albans, has joined forces with MPs from across the political spectrum to press for a new law to give vulnerable people living in care settings – many still subject to Covid restrictions – the right to receive visits from at least one nominated carer.
During a debate in the House of Commons co-sponsored by Daisy, she highlighted widespread reports that many residents are still being denied the right to spend time with their closest family members and friends, despite the removal of all Covid restrictions on visits to care homes by the Government last April.
Daisy spoke of the trauma suffered by many of her constituents who had found themselves separated from their loved-ones when they were at their most vulnerable, at the end of life, and especially those suffering from dementia.
“Each and every story has been absolutely heart-breaking,” Daisy said, and she recounted the plight of two of her constituents, both suffering from dementia, who had been separated from their loved-ones due to “this glaring gap in the law”.
“Contact with and reassurance from loved-ones is incredibly important to all of us, but it is especially critical for people with dementia,” she told the Commons.
“We now understand much more about effective infection control with Covid. Regrettably, we now also understand – from harsh-lived experience – the impact of separating those with dementia from their loved-ones and essential carers.
“Guidance exists so that safe visiting can be facilitated by care home operators but, as we’ve already heard, the overwhelming response from relatives across the country shows that it’s just not being implemented in a consistent or fair way,” she said.
“Care homes continue to apply rules far in excess of the measures recommended by Department for Health and Social Care guidance. It has been reported that more than 10 per cent of care homes permitted no visitors at all during Covid outbreaks between April and September this year; that 20 per cent of care homes confined residents to their rooms for up to 28 days during an outbreak; and that almost half of homes have some form of visiting restrictions in place, even when there is no outbreak at all.
“As it stands, relatives do not feel empowered to do anything at all about the wildly varying rules put in place by the homes they have entrusted their loved-ones to.”
Those that complained to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and social care in England, reported mixed success, according to research carried out by a House of Commons team for the debate.
“Some told us that things improved, but the vast majority said either there was no improvement, the CQC was not interested or the CQC simply did not respond,” said Daisy.
And one person who responded to the survey claimed she was threatened with eviction from her care home for speaking to the CQC.
“This is what so many of my constituents tell me,” Daisy said. “They fear making a report to the CQC because there are no legal protections for visiting their family members. They are terrified of being labelled a troublemaker, of being stopped from visiting their loved-ones altogether or of their loved-ones being evicted. There is a huge power imbalance, which cannot be right.
“The CQC agrees it is vital that people are able to spend time with the people they love. It tells us that, when it becomes aware of guidance, it will take action but – this is the critical point – the CQC does not have the power to require care homes to report any visiting restrictions they put in place.”
Responding at the end of the debate, the new Minister for Health and Social Care, Helen Whately MP, on her first day in the post, agreed that the status quo was unacceptable, and that her first task since her appointment would be to commission work “on the steps that I can take to sort this out”.