On 19 July 2021 most restrictions, related to the coronavirus pandemic were lifted.

However, we must keep some restrictions in care homes to protect your loved ones and our staff. Care home residents are some of our most vulnerable citizens. Vaccines provide a high level of protection but we are still seeing some outbreaks of coronavirus in our care homes, with instances of serious illness. Therefore, we would appreciate you following the guidance below.
 

Please:

• Take a Lateral Flow Test (LFT) on day of your visit. Testing supports care homes to safely maintain a balance between infection control and the vital benefits of visiting to the health and wellbeing of our residents.
• Continue to book appointments to visit our care home. Visits will be available in the visiting lounge and individual bedrooms. We still need to clean between visits, which can take some time. Although the number limit on visitors is now lifted , booking an appointment will give us time to keep the care home clean and keep your loved ones safe.  Visits will last for half an hour in the visitors lounge and up to an hour in the bedroom. You will be escorted to the room of your visit to ensure the risk of infection is kept to a minimum. If you require assistance anytime during your visit please use the nurse call system and someone will attend to you.
• Wear a mask throughout your visit. This will help prevent transmission of the virus to others.  We also ask that you wear additional PPE such as, aprons, gloves or eye protection.
• Wash hands thoroughly with soap and water, for at least 20 seconds when you arrive at the care home and use the hand gel provided.

In the event of an outbreak visiting will immediately stop for 14 days. After the last confirmed or suspected case(s) were identified in a resident or staff member. An outbreak is classed as two or more confirmed cases. Window visits can continue in the event of an outbreak.

We are asking visitors to be supportive of Portway House and recognise that we will need to ‘share out’ visiting appointments so everyone gets the chance to have one.

If you have any other questions or queries about visiting your loved ones please contact the care home manager.

Thankyou in advance for your patience and cooperation. We will continue to work hard to support and improve all aspects of visits with our residents. As clinical advice changes, we hope to remove further visiting restrictions.  

The latest guidance on care home visiting updated 16 July 2021 is available on

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visiting-care-homes-during-coronavirus/update-on-policies-for-visiting-arrangements-in-care-homes

The summary of guidance for visitors updated on 16 July 2021 is available on

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visiting-care-homes-during-coronavirus/summary-of-guidance-for-visitors--2

Please see our Vistors Code Policy Here