Coronavirus NSW: Nursing homes defend shutting their doors in defiance of government advice
Aged care providers want the government to endorse their right to impose total bans on visitors to protect “public health and resident safety,” but health experts say its not necessary and there is no cluster in Australia that would justify the move.
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Nowhere in Australia has a significant coronavirus outbreak in the community that would justify aged care providers blocking all visits to the elderly, according to the country’s top health expert.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy said the Australian Health Principal Protection Committee – which makes recommendations to government on coronavirus restrictions – would not be amending its advice on allowing visits to aged care, despite calls from the sector to do so.
“We haven’t changed our advice and we won’t be changing our advice,” he said.
“We understand that the aged care sector, many of the providers took these measures on what they believed to be the best interests of the residence but we think that has to be weighed up against the mental health of the residents as well.”
Some aged care providers wanted the federal government to endorse their right to stop all visits if deemed necessary, but Prof Murphy said the only acceptable reasons for this were if there was a COVID-19 outbreak inside the facility or a significant number of cases in the immediate community.
“That doesn’t exist anywhere in the country at the moment,” he said.
“Beyond that we believe that it is possible and in the best interests of the residents to allow highly screened, safe, limited visitors,” he said.
Prof Murphy said health officials recommended there should be no more than two visitors a day and that visits should be short.
“Everybody coming into an aged care facility needs to be screened – staff, visitors or anyone else coming in,” he said.
“Nobody should enter and aged care facility if they have a cough, cold, runny nose or fever.”
Almost 1,000 providers have backed calls for a “revised statement” from the federal government confirming facilities are able to impose additional visitation restrictions “in some cases” beyond the measures recommended by the Australian Health Principal Protection Committee.
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Currently unless there is an outbreak inside a home, or a cluster in the community around a facility, aged care providers have been told they must allow strictly screened visits from family and friends to the elderly.
National representatives from Anglicare, Baptist Care, Catholic Health, Leading Ages Services and Uniting Care have supported the call for the revised statement, as well as a process for the rapid escalation and resolution of “case-by-case issues” and a “timely response” from government on their request for further financial support during the coronavirus pandemic.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has criticised homes for completely banning visits, instead of following the guidelines restriction visitors to no more than two per day, for a short period of time in the confines of a residents’ room.
“What I’m keen to do is ensure that people living in aged care facilities get their visits.,” he said yesterday.
“Now, that doesn’t mean they can have 100 visitors a day. Of course not. That would be dangerous.
“But there can be two visits a day and particularly by loved ones and close support people and that should be the norm.”
The sector defended the bans in an online webinar meeting with Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck and Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy on Friday.
“We impressed upon them that it is incorrect to characterise the sector as having kept residents isolated, under lock and key, in their rooms. Nor are they secret places,” a spokesman for the peak groups said.
Prof Murphy said the National Cabinet acknowledged the providers thought what they were doing was in the “best interests of residents”.
“The National Cabinet was not blaming them, it was pointing out that we have to think about the psychological needs of those residents and they need to have access to their family and it can be made safe,” he said.
“In a situation like we have in Australia, where there are some states and territories which have very few cases at all, they would agree it is not reasonable to completely deny access to very safely screened visitors for a short period of time and that everyone coming into a facility needs to be screened.”
Australian Bupa aged care homes initially ended visits with some exemptions for compassionate reasons, but will resume from May 1 when mandatory influenza vaccine restrictions for all visitors kick in.
“We originally introduced these restrictions based on medical advice that the COVID-19 outbreak may become significant across the community,” Bupa’s managing director Suzanne Dvorak said.
“While it continues to be a serious and challenging situation, we are thankful that the outbreak has been suppressed earlier than anticipated, however, we need to remain vigilant.”
Originally published as Coronavirus NSW: Nursing homes defend shutting their doors in defiance of government advice
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