Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 03 November 2020
I am grateful to Monica Lennon for her comments and questions. I will make two points.
I know that the documents that were published today are detailed, but they are really important. I hope that members will take the opportunity to read them, and when they do, I will be happy to continue our meeting of Opposition health spokespeople to consider some of the detail, and bring some of the clinical advice and support to that discussion. I am happy to convene that meeting as soon as our diaries allow, in order to discuss exactly what Monica Lennon has asked for—that we work across the chamber to consider what more we can do to ensure that families and their loved ones in care homes can spend quality time together more frequently and for longer.
I cannot make care home providers do whatever I would like them to do, and I know that Monica Lennon understands that, but I want to make sure that we do not have blanket bans. That is why, in my statement, I talked about more localised decision making, so that it is not necessarily the case that, because a local authority is at level 3, for example, all care home or hospital visiting is automatically banned. If a local authority is at level 3, it is a risky area and we need to recognise that. However, we also need to consider whether the additional protective measures that I have announced, including testing for visitors and for visiting health and social care professionals, the PPE and all the other support will help providers to feel more confident about managing the risk, and directors of public health to feel more confident about giving tailored guidance to individual care homes.