Care Home Visiting Rights Should Be Legally Protected: UK Government

A care home resident talks with a carer outside a care home in Scunthorpe, northern England on May 4, 2020. Lindsey Parnaby/AFP via Getty Images

Care home residents, as well as hospital and hospice patients, should have a legally protected right to have visitors, the government has announced.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) launched a consultation on Wednesday to seek views on introducing legislation that will protect visiting as a fundamental standard across providers, regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Among services regulated by the CQC are those provided by hospitals, dentists, ambulances, care homes, and the care given in people’s own homes.

The emergency COVID-19 measures, introduced during the pandemic, restricted visits in care homes and other health care facilities in an attempt to control the risk of transmission among patients and residents.

Minister for social care Helen Whately recognized the restrictions were “detrimental” and “distressing” for people in care homes and hospitals, as well as their families and friends.

“Visits from loved ones are vital to the health and wellbeing of people receiving care in care homes, hospitals and hospices. We know how much these connections matter, whether through the practical care an individual provides to a loved one, support and advocacy during a difficult medical appointment, or the comfort provided from a held hand or a hug,” Whately said in the foreward to the consulation.

She added that visiting was not merely a “nice thing to have” but a vital part of care.

As health care providers move away from the emergency pandemic measures, the DHSC guidance for care homes and hospitals is that visits should be facilitated in a “risk-managed way.”

Care home visitors may be asked to wear masks or see the number of visitors reduced, based on the risk assessment by the provider. Hospital patients are, as a standard, to be allowed visiting for at least one hour per day, ideally for longer, for two visitors at the bedside.

Current CQC regulations don’t explicitly mention visiting, apart from it being considered that any restrictions should be reasonable, proportionate, and time limited. The policy intention behind the government consultation is to ensure that visiting is “protected” and “remains a priority” for providers.

“We therefore propose to do this by introducing secondary legislation (regulations) to amend CQC regulations to include a specific visiting requirement,” the announcement said.

It would help regulators identify breaches by care homes or hospitals, as well as put pressure on them by using civil enforcement powers to address the breach.

“Visits from loved ones can mean the world in care homes and hospital - that’s why we’re protecting them in law,” Whately said on Twitter.

‘Profound Pain’

The Rights for Residents campaign launched in 2020 by the families of those directly affected by visiting restrictions said that the government consultation was “a cause for celebration.” However, the group vowed to keep campaigning for the right to receive visits to be enshrined in law.

From the onset of the pandemic there have been more than 45,000 deaths of care home residents in England and Wales involving COVID-19 up until January 2022. The government’s handling of the crisis with respect to care homes caused bitterness and concern among families whose relatives and friends had passed away while in care.

The Rights for Residents ambassador, actress Ruthie Henshall, told The Guardian that her mother Gloria, a care home resident during the pandemic, was denied basic human rights.

“While MPs were drinking and snogging I was waving at mum through a care home window,” Henshall said.

Her comments came amid the government’s probe into the Partygate scandal, involving the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his colleagues, and his staff.

The House of Commons Privileges Committee has found that Johnson misled Parliament when he said he didn’t know about lockdown-breaking social gatherings in and around Downing Street.

The COVID-19 Inquiry heard last week that the government guidance on self-isolation and social distancing during the pandemic caused “profound loneliness, pain, and anguish” for British families.

Fiona Scolding, KC, representing the DHSC, told the inquiry that “people were unable to visit and comfort loved ones who were unwell or dying,” recognising the “stoicism and forbearance” of the families who lost loved ones during the pandemic.