Care Homes: Visits

(asked on 14th March 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will publish the clinical evidence used to create the latest version of the guidance on care home visiting, updated 24 February 2022.


Answered by
Gillian Keegan Portrait
Gillian Keegan
Secretary of State for Education
This question was answered on 26th April 2022

While there was no specific clinical evidence provided prior to the publication of the guidance published on 24 February, the update was based on advice from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). Its advice recommended that:

- the end of February was not an appropriate time to stand down isolation guidance in vulnerable settings. This advice was based on COVID-19 infection across vulnerable settings being severe, resulting in high numbers of hospitalisations and deaths in the past;

- Prevalence remains high, the future epidemic trajectory unpredictable and the removal of restrictions will mean more residents/patients being newly exposed to infection. Furthermore, reinfection with Omicron is more common than with previous variants. The UKHSA has advised that changes in vulnerable settings should not be in lockstep but rather a step behind wider society given levels of community infection are a key risk in outbreaks;

- The purpose of staying away from the setting or self-isolation of residents/patients is to protect vulnerable people in these settings from the risk of transmission of infection. Self-isolation and reduced contact are a standard public health intervention to prevent infection, which is especially important in closed settings with highly vulnerable people; and

- Increased contact with COVID-19 positive individuals is more likely to lead to outbreaks, which can have severe impacts in vulnerable settings and on their ability to deliver a service. For all settings, this can mean a closure to all but emergency admissions and visiting (particularly impactful in care homes and prisons), cohorting of staff and residents/ patients resulting in reduced capacity, and areas of the service being shut, for example, wings in hospitals.

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