Skip to main content
Normal View

Covid-19 Pandemic

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 December 2020

Tuesday, 15 December 2020

Questions (577)

Patricia Ryan

Question:

577. Deputy Patricia Ryan asked the Minister for Health the actions he will take to ensure older persons will get their full visit entitlement under the Health Protection Surveillance Centre guidelines; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43349/20]

View answer

Written answers

The importance of continued social interaction of residents and their families cannot be overstated and every effort should be made, in line with public health advice, to ensure that these interactions continue. The Plan for Living with COVID-19 Framework has been developed to help us to go about our daily lives as much as possible, with measures aimed at the key priorities of protecting health, strengthening employment, and supporting communities. The system is communicated through a numbered system of alert Levels, from 1 to 5 with Level 1 being the lowest with the least amount of restrictive measures in place and Level 5 being the highest with the most restrictions in place.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre published updated guidance on visitations to long term residential care facilities on 30 November. The new guidance which came into effect from 7 December, aims to further support long-term residential care services, including nursing homes and residents in planning visits across all levels of the framework for restrictive measures in the government’s Plan for Living with COVID-19.

This new guidance outlines an updated definition for ‘critical and compassionate circumstances’, which now provides that, subject to risk assessment, residents may be facilitated to receive:

- up to one visit by one person per week under Levels 3 and 4 of the framework;

- up to one visit by one person per two weeks under Level 5.

It also notes that at all framework levels every practical effort should be made to accommodate an additional visit on compassionate grounds during the period of a major cultural or religious festival or celebration of particular significance to the resident, such as the Christmas/New Year period.

Given the importance of facilitating visiting over the Winter period and over Christmas, the Temporary Assistance Payment Scheme (TAPS) has been expanded on a once-off basis to allow a claim of up to €2,500 per eligible nursing home. This will enable them to create additional safe visiting spaces and enhance current visiting spaces.

Enhancement of safe visiting spaces is aligned with the overriding aim of TAPS, which is to support nursing homes in keeping residents safe and reduce the risk of infection and transmission into the nursing home. It is recognised that residents and their families will prioritise visiting over this period and these spaces will provide for these visits to be undertaken in a way that reduces the health and other risks of outdoor visiting on residents and their visitors, who may themselves be older and more vulnerable.

Nursing home providers are ultimately responsible for the safe care of their residents. Under Regulation 11 of the Health Act 2007 (Care and Welfare of Residents in Designated Centres for Older People) Regulations 2013 it is the legal responsibility of each registered provider to make arrangements for a resident to receive visitors, having regard to any risks that may present for the resident or other residents. I encourage all nursing homes to remain familiar with the latest public health advice and support, and to make every effort to continue to facilitate visitors in line with public health advice and to communicate with family and friends on an ongoing basis in order to support positive mental health and wellbeing. I have communicated with the sector outlining the need for them to be flexible, innovative and to facilitate visiting arrangements, in line with public health advice.

Notwithstanding this, it is also important to be cognisant of the wider epidemiological situation and the risks associated with same. On 19 November, the European Centre for Disease Control published its latest risk assessment with regard to long-term care facilities across Europe. It highlights that the probability of COVID-19 introduction into a long-term care facility depends on the level of COVID-19 circulation in the community, with a higher risk associated with higher incidence rates in the community.

This highlights the importance of suppressing the level of the virus in the community as one of the primary measures for protecting nursing homes. As citizens, we all have a responsibility in this regard and our actions across all of society can directly impact the outcomes for nursing home residents.

Top
Share