It’s a real balancing act between the good of social interaction with family and other residents against the potential danger of getting infected with a serious variant of SARS-CoV-2. At least with PAXLOVID there is effective treatment in the early stage of infection – usually quite apparent in the elderly or those with underlying health issues.
Have a loved one in care, have people I also care about long term employed in sector, and I’ve been an unpaid carer on/off for a couple decades.. so I can sort of see things from both sides of it
This isn’t just a problem native to Scotland, its gone on down here through out the pandemic.. I mean honestly I even remember a time before it where stuff like visits would get put on hold if there were an outbreak of SnD (sickness + diarrhoea) and similar nasties, to protect residents, staff and public for instance
Care homes particularly the well run ones (they exist!) get a fair amount of discretion when it comes to safeguarding which is why your still seeing them do internal lockdowns if a couple people test positive, also why many still testing at the door or requiring you to get one done before visiting on the day
Also considering by large they are all basically private institutions which feeds into the leeway the franchises are given in how they do things so long as certain criteria is met
Its a horrible position because these people should not be isolated like this but equally many are so frail, that even with covid being substantially lower risk to (most of) the rest of the population it can still be an end of life catalyst event for these
The other thing to consider.. is there are treatments but then that is assuming you identify it early enough and the postcode lottery allows access to said treatment, and even then since your talking about a very frail person them just being in hospital is risking something going bad (picking up other infections and sores etc)
Just getting these people to hospital is like a bad dream.. you thought it was bad people being in the back of ambulances for hours imagine someone having a fall and being on the ground for the better part of a day before even being seen by crew and its not a one off
Not saying any of this is right/wrong or sadly offering a magic solution just giving perspective
2 comments
It’s a real balancing act between the good of social interaction with family and other residents against the potential danger of getting infected with a serious variant of SARS-CoV-2. At least with PAXLOVID there is effective treatment in the early stage of infection – usually quite apparent in the elderly or those with underlying health issues.
Have a loved one in care, have people I also care about long term employed in sector, and I’ve been an unpaid carer on/off for a couple decades.. so I can sort of see things from both sides of it
This isn’t just a problem native to Scotland, its gone on down here through out the pandemic.. I mean honestly I even remember a time before it where stuff like visits would get put on hold if there were an outbreak of SnD (sickness + diarrhoea) and similar nasties, to protect residents, staff and public for instance
Care homes particularly the well run ones (they exist!) get a fair amount of discretion when it comes to safeguarding which is why your still seeing them do internal lockdowns if a couple people test positive, also why many still testing at the door or requiring you to get one done before visiting on the day
Also considering by large they are all basically private institutions which feeds into the leeway the franchises are given in how they do things so long as certain criteria is met
Its a horrible position because these people should not be isolated like this but equally many are so frail, that even with covid being substantially lower risk to (most of) the rest of the population it can still be an end of life catalyst event for these
The other thing to consider.. is there are treatments but then that is assuming you identify it early enough and the postcode lottery allows access to said treatment, and even then since your talking about a very frail person them just being in hospital is risking something going bad (picking up other infections and sores etc)
Just getting these people to hospital is like a bad dream.. you thought it was bad people being in the back of ambulances for hours imagine someone having a fall and being on the ground for the better part of a day before even being seen by crew and its not a one off
Not saying any of this is right/wrong or sadly offering a magic solution just giving perspective