As Coronavirus COVID-19 continues to spread, our priority remains to protect our vulnerable residents, their relatives and our staff as much as we can.

At this time, and following Department of Health guidelines, the home will remain open to visitors on a restricted basis, although this may change, depending on government policy.

We are working hard to reduce the possibility of infection within the home and have cancelled all external entertainment until further notice and postponed all non-essential maintenance projects and community visits.

We asked that all non-essential visits by families / friends were reduced. We would like to thank everyone who has kindly complied with this request. But we are now looking to take this one step further: family members should visit only if it is absolutely essential, leaving any children under 18 at home.

Please arrange an essential visit by contacting the home or deputy manager beforehand. It is vitally important that you do not arrive at the home without having called first and being refused entry. The health and wellbeing of your loved one depends on you, our staff and everyone else around them behaving responsibly at this difficult time. We recognise the importance of ensuring that you stay in touch with your loved ones. As difficult as it is at this moment in time, contact can only be made via telephone.

Within the home we have increased our infection control measures and need visitors to follow all hygiene protocols stringently to further reduce the risk of infection.

If any resident presents with symptoms of COVID-19 we will immediately isolate them and seek both medical advice and guidance. We will, of course, keep relatives fully informed of the situation.

Please rest assured that we are monitoring the situation very carefully and to follow the latest government thinking and guidelines; taking appropriate measures to ensure the health, safety and welbeing of our residents and staff. We are in contact with Health Team and will follow any guidance that they offer as the situation unfolds in the coming weeks and months. We are also in regular contact with our GP practices to ensure that cover for residents will continue. Non-urgent visits from other health professionals will be assessed on a case-by-case basis and may need to be rescheduled.

Regarding essential food, medication and hygiene items, we have adequate supplies and do not anticipate a shortfall.

In these difficult and uncertain times, it is more important than ever that we all work together to support and protect the vulnerable adults in our care, as well as their relatives, our staff and the wider community and we would like to thank you for your continued support in helping us to achieve this.

If anyone has any questions about how we are responding to COVID-19, please speak to the Care Manager.