Restrictions have turned care homes into 'prisons', charities warn Government

Care homes have been turned into prisons, with residents "losing the will to live" as they are deprived contact with families, charities for the elderly have warned.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on coronavirus was told that restrictions on visiting homes have become so extreme that vulnerable people are being left distressed and lonely, in some cases unable to recognise their loved ones.

Charities said belated attempts to keep residents safe from the spread of coronavirus were too often creating misery and isolation.

They criticised the Government for acting so slowly to attempt to protect care homes from the pandemic that 6,000 deaths had occurred by the time testing was introduced.

In July, the Government issued long-delayed guidance to care homes after four months of lockdown, suggesting future visits should be restricted to just one family member.

Helen Wildbore, the director of the Relatives and Residents Association, suggested attempts to protect the vulnerable sometimes forgot about their social needs.

She told MPs: "Sadly, many of the callers to our helpline have been telling us that the current situation in care homes is now very much like a prison, with such restricted visiting, residents unable to leave the grounds of the home, and limited interactions with other residents and staff."

Ms Wildbore said the effects of such isolation were particularly devastating for those with dementia and their families. Often such residents could not understand why they had been denied visits, with some left fearful of what had become of their family, or whether they would ever visit again.

"We hear daily from our helpline callers about how relatives in care are deteriorating, not just their mental health but also the knock-on impact on their physical health of older people losing weight and losing speech, losing their memory, no longer being able to recognise their family members," she said.

"One relative put it to us that they're losing the will to live."

Judy Downey, who chairs the charity, criticised the Government for acting far too late to attempt to protect care homes.

She said that by the time guidance was changed in April, with hospitals told to start testing those discharged to care homes, there had already been 28,000 patients transferred, and almost 6,000 coronavirus deaths.

"It is hard to be positive when you ask what Government support was. The guidance was confused, contradictory and too late," she told MPs.

Other charities said that the circumstances in which people had lost loved ones – with restrictions on visits meaning many had been kept apart from relatives in the final months of their lives – would make bereavement even more difficult.

Morgan Vine, from Independent Age, said: "We did some calculations and we estimate that about 98,000 people have lost a partner during Covid."

She said the figure was around one and a half times greater than is normal for this period.

As a result, many people in later life would be left experiencing multiple bereavements, in some cases suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) because of their experiences.

"You couldn't be there with the person, you don't know if they had a good end of life, and all of that can combine to create a situation where people experience PTSD symptoms and would really need some professional support," she said.

The charity also raised concerns that some elderly and vulnerable people who had stayed at home for months lacked access to food, a situation it feared could be repeated in the event of a second wave of coronavirus.

Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospitals, criticised the Government for stopping efforts to isolate and trace Covid-19 cases. Mass testing and tracing was abandoned in March and not restarted until June with the roll-out of NHS Test and Trace.

He told MPs: "Test and Trace should have been in place three months before it was. Now, we need to up the percentage of who we are putting into the test and trace system, giving their details and then isolating."