Indoor Visits to Care Homes

Our residents and care staff treasure family visits to our care homes.

As such, we think the Government’s announcement of restrictions easing from 12th April 2021 is great news. Reaching this stage of the lockdown roadmap means families will be able to visit their loved ones in our care homes.

Macleod Pinsent Care Homes has continued to welcome visitors throughout the pandemic following government guidelines. We’ve worked with residents, their families and our staff to find safe solutions wherever possible for visiting the homes.

Visiting your loved one is hugely important to both them and you. It’s equally important to us; we’re dedicated to making visits happen and continuously improving resident care. We’ve worked hard over the Covid-19 pandemic to ensure we strike a balance between our love for welcoming people into our homes and the need to keep our residents and staff safe from infection.

We take our duty to protect our residents and teams very seriously; you cannot put a price on the safety of your loved ones. So while we would have loved to have welcomed more visitors into our care homes, we must continue to stick to the latest Government guidance on care home visits.

Arranging a visit to our care homes

As you may know, part of the Prime Minister’s ‘roadmap’ for easing lockdown restrictions is to set out guidelines for care home visits.

This roadmap stresses the importance of opening care homes carefully, and being clear about how and when this can happen.

Care homes have been able to welcome one regular visitor indoors from 8th March. This has been fantastic for our residents and teams, and we’re excited to be able to extend this to two named indoor visitors from 12th April 2021. A further update means residents will be allowed 5 named visitors from the 17th May 2021 although, only 2 people will be able to visit at any one time.

Although there will still be a few restrictions in place, we’re looking forward to these next steps and hope that restrictions will further ease as time goes by.

The Government has updated its care home visiting guidance to cover this latest step forward. Check the factsheet and summary for visitors for more information.

We’d like to say how incredibly grateful we are for the way in which you’ve helped us and our residents stay safe throughout lockdown. All of our residents’ loved ones have been phenomenally understanding every step of the way, working with us patiently through changeable Government tier systems, local and national lockdowns. All visits, whether they’re indoor, screened visits or garden visits, have brightened our residents’ days.

Call us in advance to discuss our visiting arrangements

We are keeping our telephone booking system in place. This helps us manage footfall through our homes in line with Government guidance. It’s crucial that we limit the number of visitors in the homes at any given time in order to reduce the risk of transmission.

We must therefore ask that you continue to call the care home in advance to arrange a visit. We’ll be able to advise you then of any restrictions that may apply, for example any special arrangements for babies, toddlers and older children visiting from 12th April.

How the visits work

With your cooperation, indoor visits can go ahead based on the following:

• Two designated visitors per resident from 12th April, plus accompanying babies and younger children. Moving to 5 named visitors from the 17th May 2021 with two people allowed to visit at any one time. We will discuss this with our residents and family representatives ahead of time to help you decide the most appropriate visitors. We encourage visitors to bring tablets, and do have some of our own available, to enable video calls with other family members. Although it’s not the same as visiting in person, it can really help feel like a big family get together.
• Nominated visitors must have a Lateral Flow rapid test for Covid-19 before coming into the home. The test must be done on each visit. These are very simple nasal swab tests, giving results in around 30 minutes. Trained staff members are available to help guide you through the testing process. If the test result is positive, visitors will not be allowed into the home and will be advised to self-isolate according to Government guidelines.
• Face masks are required at all times during visits. Hand hygiene is also crucial and we ask that our visitors make use of our carefully placed hand hygiene facilities. Visitors will be able to hold hands with their loved ones, although close contact like hugging and kissing is not advised.

We understand that our visitors may have their own needs during visits. That’s why we assure all visitors that outdoor and screened visits are also continuing if this is preferred. Please do let us know if we can do anything to assist making the visits easier and safer for you.

Covid and care homes

If you’ve had a Covid-19 vaccine, please let us know so we can keep a record. This will enable us to allow more visits sooner, subject to revised Government guidance.

If we experience a Covid-19 outbreak, we will have to suspend all indoor visiting at the affected home. Please be assured that we will follow all guidelines if this were the case, allowing us to re-open again as soon as possible.

We appreciate your continued cooperation and support. We do hope you understand that we must prioritise the safety of our residents, so we have to follow national guidance.

Please contact the home if you’ve got any questions at all. We’re more than happy to help clarify and answer queries.

Find our care home details and contact information here.