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Advinia’s Response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) (updated 18/11/2020)
As national and regional restrictions are once again put in place by the UK and Scottish governments to curtail the spread of COVID-19, our priority, as it has been throughout this crisis, remains the safety and wellbeing of our Residents and Colleagues.
Since the early days of this pandemic our dedicated teams have worked tirelessly to put in place the most rigorous infection prevention measures and these are updated regularly to reflect latest Government guidance, both north and south of the border.
The new restrictions, namely the month-long lockdown in England and the five-tier system in Scotland, do have implications for visiting care homes, and this article will explain those in detail.
We will also highlight the measures we are taking to keep everyone safe, including:
- Latest Visitor Guidance
- Regular COVID-19 testing for Residents and work Colleagues
- Moving into our Care Homes
- Resident wellbeing
- What we are doing to make sure Residents and work Colleagues continue to remain as safe as possible
- How we are ensuring our Homes always have all the equipment they need
Latest Visitor Guidance
Government guidance in Scotland and England does now facilitate a wider range of physical social visits – subject always to ongoing review and endorsement by local Public Health officials and local councils.
We are actively reviewing how we can support more social visits in our Homes, bearing in mind the national governments’ guidance around settings:
- Open air visits are preferable, where weather and care needs permit
- Visits through windows at the Home
- Temporary outdoor structures
- Dedicated, ventilated indoor rooms
Visits to care homes are still controlled and are subject to the specific circumstances at the care home and those living and working in it. This will likely mean that the frequency of visits is limited and / or controlled.
We are bound by the views and guidance of local Public Health teams about visiting – they have the best information and expertise to minimise the spread of the virus and if there is an ‘outbreak’ of COVID-19 in the Home, we will need to follow their advice which may mean suspending all social visits.
To make visiting loved ones as safe as possible, we will continue to use ‘dynamic risk assessments’ in determining how social visits can be accommodated, based on individual Residents and factors both at each Home and in their local communities.
The safety, health and wellbeing of our Residents remains our priority and we must continue to minimise the risk of COVID-19 infection – the Residents are in some of the most vulnerable groups in society and so we will continue to make available to you our Social Visit Policy and dynamic risk assessment protocols, so that you are fully aware of the steps each Home is taking to ensure visits to loved ones are as safe as possible.
There are a number of visiting considerations which national governments have imposed on all care homes in their current guidance and there are some key points which will guide us:
- Limiting social visitor numbers - a single, constant visitor wherever possible
- Visitors should travel in their own car, walk or cycle to the Home, wherever possible to minimise the risk of infection from public transport
- Appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) must be worn throughout the visit
- Social distancing must be observed throughout, wherever possible
- Appropriate pre-visit checks (e.g temperatures) must be undertaken and infection control practices rigorously followed (e.g 20 second handwashing)
- All social visits will be pre-booked, no ad-hoc visiting
Regular COVID-19 testing for Residents and work Colleagues
Testing for COVID-19 is a vital tool in limiting the spread of such a highly contagious disease.
Now that the UK and Scottish Governments have made testing more widely available, we are able to test all Advinia Residents on a monthly basis and we have the ability to request retesting as needed.
This testing data allows us to have significantly more control over the spread of the virus and to isolate any Residents with a positive test result immediately, even if they are asymptomatic.
It is also crucially important that our work Colleagues are tested regularly to ensure we continue to limit the spread of the virus and all work Colleagues are now tested on a weekly basis.
Anyone with a positive test must follow Government self-isolating guidance and will not return to work until the stipulated period has passed and they are not displaying any symptoms. More frequent testing also allows us to ensure asymptomatic work Colleagues remain self-isolated at home.
Moving into our Care Homes
We always ensure that new Residents have been tested for COVID-19 prior to moving into our Homes and that they have proof of a negative test 48 hours before coming into the Home. All new admissions are cared for by dedicated Colleagues in their rooms for 14 days to further reduce the risk of infection being brought into the Home and the strict infection prevention controls and procedures already in place in our Homes are fully carried out to maintain the safety, health and wellbeing of all Residents.
Resident Wellbeing
We would like to thank all Residents, their families and friends for their support during this challenging time. We fully appreciate how difficult it is to have limited contact with loved ones and our work Colleagues are doing everything possible to maintain Resident wellbeing and to ensure there is always a sense of community within our Homes.
We have tried to help families maintain contact with loved ones by facilitating Google Hangout video calls and we are using our social media pages more extensively, so that families are able to see what loved ones are doing on a more regular basis.
We are also working hard to ensure that all our Homes continue with a varied activities programme that considers all areas of wellbeing, is tailored to personal preferences and helps maintain a high quality of life for all Residents.
What we are doing to make sure Residents and work Colleagues continue to remain as safe as possible
We rigorously follow both national and local Public Health / Health Protection guidelines and are in regular contact with all the local Public Health teams so that we stay abreast of all fast-moving developments.
All Advinia Care Homes have a well thought out and detailed Contingency Plan and they are supported by Advinia right the way to the top of the company. A Senior Response Team (SRT) has been established which meets regularly and supports all Homes, as needed. This team ensures that all the appropriate policies, procedures, resources and equipment are in place to provide the best possible care for Residents.
In addition to frequent testing, we are continuing to check the health of our Colleagues, to safeguard their own health and that of Residents, by checking temperatures and looking for symptoms before they start work and sending home those with potential symptoms.
We also continue to follow enhanced infection prevention and control policies, and our teams remain alert to the threat of COVID-19 at all times. The extra measures in place for infection control include ‘deep cleans’ of key areas in our Homes, rigorous and more frequent housekeeping and cleaning schedules and extensive handwashing and we have conducted many additional training sessions and audits around this.
Again, before the initial government lockdown, we introduced an additional training course for all Colleagues around COVID-19 to ensure they were fully informed about the virus and how it affected the way they provided care to Residents.
We have also ensured that all Colleagues have had the opportunity to refresh their detailed Infection Control and Prevention training and also introduced extensive training around donning and doffing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). We continue to ensure that all Homes have ample supplies of all appropriate PPE right across each Home.
We are maintaining social distancing measures for Residents in our Homes and we also monitor all Residents for potential COVID-19 symptoms and make temperature checks twice daily. Where necessary, we care for Residents in isolation, using barrier-nursing techniques and we seek to ‘cohort’ the number of Colleagues providing care and services to Resident groups, minimising the number of Colleagues with whom Residents come into contact.
We continue to review our response to COVID-19 on a regular basis to ensure that we are always following the latest Government and scientific advice. As the Government revises lockdown restrictions, we will assess the impact that each of the changes may have on Residents and make sure that we always prioritise their health and safety.
In the weeks ahead, if and when there are regional variations in the lifting / imposition of lockdown restrictions then we recommend contacting individual Home Managers for more specific details.
What we are doing to make sure our Care Homes have adequate stocks and supplies
Advinia’s Procurement team continue to work to ensure that all our Homes have adequate supplies of key essentials – be that hand wash or hand sanitiser, a full range of cleaning and laundry materials, or the appropriate PPE.
Public Health / Health Protection guidelines are subject to revisions as the science develops and Advinia monitors these all the time and ensures that all Homes are updated when guidelines change, for instance around PPE. The Senior Response Team makes clear to all Homes what PPE is required to care for Residents’ specific needs and provides guides and posters to ensure all Colleagues can safely wear the appropriate PPE to protect vulnerable Residents from the risk of infection.
Advinia Care Homes also work together to ensure that each Home maintains adequate supplies of PPE – the Senior Response Team helps to co-ordinate the redistribution of key stock items between Homes, as needed.
Want more information?
If you have any other questions regarding Advinia Care Homes’ preparedness for the Coronavirus, please contact your local Care Home. All contact details can be found on the website.
For the latest information on COVID-19 and how to minimise your risk of infection please go to the following websites:
