Post-lockdown visiting bans at NHS hospitals and care homes are ILLEGAL and breach Human Rights Act, Tory MPs warn
- Tory MPs and peers claimed denying hospital visitation is ‘inhumane and cruel’
- NHS guidelines were changed in March to allow two visitors at a bedside table
- But hospitals including Queen Victoria are still limiting to one visit per day
Hospitals and care homes are breaking the law by continuing to ban family visits despite the end of Covid restrictions, dozens of Tory MPs claimed today.
They warned an ‘over-interpretation of testing guidelines is leading to isolation, neglect and abuse of vulnerable residents’.
Writing in a letter published in a newspaper today, Tories including former party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, said denying visitation is ‘inhumane and cruel’.
NHS guidelines were updated in March to allow two visitors ‘for at least one hour per day and ideally for longer’.
However, hospitals including Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, West Sussex, have maintained limited visitation to one per day ‘for a maximum of one hour’.
No10 changed the rules on care home visits in England on January 31, ditching all limits on the number visitors in homes.
Whole-home quarantine periods after a resident tests positive were also cut from 28 to 14 days.
But the Care Quality Commission in February revealed it had received complaints about visitation at 189 care services, including blanket bans on visiting at 82 homes.
MPs claim Article 8 of the Human Rights Act and the Mental Capacity Act ‘could and should have protected against this situation arising’.
NHS guidelines were changed in March to allow two visitors at a bedside table, ‘for at least one hour per day and ideally for longer’. However, hospitals including Queen Victoria Hospital (pictured) in East Grinstead, West Sussex, limit visits to one per day ‘for a maximum of one hour’
Yeovil Hospital still limits visits to just one person at a time, with a maximum of one hour stays
Hospitals including St Batholomew’s in London still encourage A&E patients ‘not to bring someone with them unless absolutely necessary’
Visiting should be accommodated for at least one hour per day and ideally for longer.
Visiting policies also need to reflect that Covid is in general circulation.
The health, safety, mental health and wellbeing of our patients, communities and staff remain the priority.
Number of visitors at the bedside:
- Two visitors
- Patients may be accompanied where appropriate and necessary to assist their communication and/or to meet their health, care, emotional, religious, or spiritual care needs
These principles should also be applied in outpatient and diagnostic service settings and the emergency department where the patient may wish/need to be accompanied by somebody important to them.
No patient should have to attend on their own unless it is their personal choice.
Writing in the letter, sent to the Daily Telegraph, the signatories claimed visitation is a ‘crucial and fundamental right’.
They said: ‘To deny this right is inhumane and cruel. Unsurprisingly, isolation and loss of social contact has a devastating impact on physical and psychological health.
‘Without the support of family and friends, health outcomes are poorer as patients and residents lose hope, sometimes even losing the will to live, often refusing treatment.
‘Campaigners are also warning of widespread and shocking safeguarding issues involving medication, hydration, hygiene and lack of basic care.’
The letter’s signatories also include former Brexit negotiator Lord Frost and ex-housing minister Esther McVey.
Labour’s Emma Lewell Buck and Graham Stringer, as well as DUP MP Sammy Wilson, gave the letter cross-party support.
Dozens of hospitals still have routine visits suspended, according to the newspaper, with majority of all hospitals having some limits in place.
These include having one named visitor per patient or only allowing entry for 30 minutes.
Yeovil Hospital still limits visits to just one person at a time, with a maximum of one hour stays.
And hospitals including St Batholomew’s in London still encourage A&E patients ‘not to bring someone with them unless absolutely necessary’.
NHS guidelines state ‘no patient should have to attend on their own unless it is their personal choice’.
The letter also claims hospitals and care homes that refuse visitors are ‘failing’ the most vulnerable members of society.
Ms McVey said she is ‘troubled’ by the current situation, adding she will write to Sajid Javid to make it ‘absolutely clear’ family members should be able to see their loved ones.
NHS England said: ‘In line with the latest guidance, NHS Trusts should facilitate patient visits and measures should already be in place for this to be done safely.’
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