Harrogate MP's plea to reintroduce care home visits for family members

Speaking in the House of Commons during a debate on Covid-19 yesterday, Monday, Mr Andrew Jones said he understood the importance of safety but the mental well-being of vulnerable people and relatives should also be a matter of priority.

Mr Jones said: "Caring for and protecting care home residents is absolutely paramount.

"The need to protect people does not go away, and I am not being critical of anyone.

"I want to highlight the emotional consequences and impact on broader health, including mental health and wellbeing for older people and their families."

Mr Jones said reinstating care home visits in a safe way would "materially help residents and families."

He said: "My point is that there could be ways of allowing visits in some form that would materially help residents and families.

"While never losing sight of the need to keep homes safe, I ask that Ministers and officials consider this issue in the widest of contexts, remembering the benefits of seeing loved ones."

Mr Jones said that fact many care home residents also lived with dementia made their need for human contact with loved ones even more important.

He said: "A further dimension of the situation is that many people in care homes suffer from some form of cognitive impairment, often dementia.

"In these circumstances, the capacity for residents to understand what is going on and why they cannot see their loved ones is almost inevitably limited, yet the need to see their loved ones is so important. It works the other way, too; the need for families to see their loved ones is important as well."

How to achieve the reintroduction of care home visits is far from an easy question, Mr Jones, added.

But he added his own possible solution while speaking in the Commons.

Mr Jones said: "Perhaps the reintroduction of visit - through glass or window visits - could be possible, and while this is impersonal, it is clearly better for people to see their loved ones than not.

"Designated very close family members in limited numbers could be given staff status, which would allow them access to testing and could then allow a degree of home access."

Yesterday's debate in Parliament also threw up the contentious issue of MPs' scrutiny of how and when the Government imposes new coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

A former Conservative chief whip Mark Harper told the Commons involving MPs more would lead to "better decisions".

Mr Jones added to voices of concern, saying that he believed parliamentary scrutiny was still required for the sake of both civil liberties and transparency.

He said: "What the Government are asking of people is hard. Civil liberties are being compromised.

"I do understand that that is for the best of reasons - and restrictions must be in place only for the shortest possible time.

"Decisions are being taken in good faith, but those decisions still need parliamentary scrutiny; that is our role here as safeguarders of our national liberty. "A transparent approach to the science and decision making is necessary to ensure that we take people with us. If we do, and if they understand why a decision has been taken,

"I think we will see greater compliance, allowing people to resume their lives safely.

"The greater the compliance, the quicker we will get through this crisis, and the less pain it will cause. We all know that the level of pain has already been very high."

Yesterday's debate came in the run-up to MPs being asked to renew the Coronavirus Act later this week.

The law grants the Government emergency powers to react to the pandemic, including powers to postpone local elections and close down pubs.

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