Care and Support

Dear families and guardians of Estuary residents,

COVID-19 Care Home Protocol and Guidance on Social Visitors to Estuary Care Homes

We would like to thank you for your patience in obeying the rules in keeping our residents safe over the past few months. We know how difficult this has been for everyone. But you have helped keep COVID 19 infections in our homes to a minimum and we’re very grateful.

As you will be aware from national media reports, the government has issued new guidance on the relaxation on rules about resident visitors to care homes.

In response to the government our care homes are getting ready to welcome visitors back to see their loved ones. Our homes have been fully risk assessed and in line with local and national guidance Estuary has drawn up the following rules on external visitors:

• Residents are allowed to have 1 named visitor to visit inside and have physical touch and can visit as often as they like. This does need to be the same person at each visit;
• Outside or window visits are possible for other visitors who are not the named visitor;
• Visits must be made by appointment and booked in advance with the home;
• To enter our home, the named visitor must be wearing full PPE, we will provide you with this;
• The named visitor must have a Lateral Flow Device (LFD) test on the day of the visit, which if positive will result in the visit being postponed. We cannot allow entry without a negative test;
• The visitor must wash their hands for 20 seconds or use hand sanitiser on entering and leaving the home, and catch coughs and sneezes in tissues and clean their hands after disposal of the tissues;
• The visitor must have no contact with other residents and minimal contact with care home staff (less than 15 minutes/2 metres);
• We may ask you to use a different entrance or exit to the one you normally use, this is to reduce the amount of contact you have with other residents;
• The room you use will need to be ventilated so please be aware that the window and door will need to be kept open throughout your visit.

Upon arrival at the home, visitors will be prepared by a member of staff with screening questions to ensure visitors are able to visit safely and have all the equipment. The member of staff will escort the visitor to their loved one and minimise exposure to other staff or residents.

Thank you for keeping these rules and helping us to control transmission of COVID-19 in Estuary care homes. We look forward to welcoming you back to our homes soon.

With best wishes,

Helen Gregory

Director of Customer Services

Published 4 March 2021.

This letter is also available to view as a PDF - Letter for Visitors to Our Homes.pdf[pdf] 186KB