Give a designated relative of every care home resident the right to visit.

Rejected 21 signatures

What the petition asks

The government need to immediately implement a system of COVID testing that allows at least one designated relative to visit their loved ones in care homes and nursing homes. The right to comfort your relative and hold their hand is paramount for their mental health in their final years.

Thousands of residents of care homes and nursing homes in the UK suffer with a range of life-limiting conditions including dementia.

Previous solutions of "through the window" visits or garden visits do not work for people with severe conditions who are often bed bound, have very limited mental capacity or have lost hearing or sight. Cyber solutions do not work for these patients either.

It should be a basic right to comfort those by touch and speech in a safe way.

Why it was rejected

The UK Government or Parliament was already taking the action it asked for.

The Government published new guidance at the start of December covering arrangements for visiting care homes in England. This guidance notes that visiting should be supported and enabled wherever it is possible to do so safely, including indoor visits in all local restriction tiers where the visitor has been tested and returned a negative result.

See: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visiting-care-homes-during-coronavirus/update-on-policies-for-visiting-arrangements-in-care-homes

If there are changes you would like to see to this guidance, you could start a new petition calling for those changes.

Timeline

15 Nov 2020	Petition opened for signatures
9 Dec 2020	Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 21

Status Rejected

Rejected 9 Dec 2020

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