Meeting Minutes

Notes from recent Relatives meeting held on 21st October 2020

 

Present:

Staff: ABN, PM, JM, KW

Relatives: Andrew Dawson, Paul Mossman, Trevor Amis, William Godfrey, Iain, Elissa McDonald, Diana Lefevre, Anne Appleby, Alan Friend, Rosemary Scott, Sue Kightly, Bob Clutterbuck

Notes:

Status update

We are pleased to confirm Askham remains to have had zero Covid cases among residents thus far. We are very proud of all the staff who have been working tremendously hard to ensure that all at Askham stay safe.

PPE: We have a good supply of PPE on site and staff are using it well. It has become the norm now for temperature checking on arrival and masks to be worn at all times. We have had some scenarios where staff have been exposed t the virus and we are pleased to say that thus far our PPE has protected any transmission into the homes. Of course nobody is perfect and we need to guard against complacency but we take heart in the fact that our infection control policies are effective.

Testing: We are participating in the DHSC weekly testing regime and the majority of staff are testing on a weekly basis. We find this reassuring to identify any asymptomatic cases amongst the staff group that need to be addressed.

Staff and training update

We have said already, but we’ll say again, how immensely proud we are of the staff working at Askham. Thank you also for all your kind words of support and encouragement – these mean a lot and whenever we receive feedback this is shared across the team.

Training: continues to take place remotely so we can stay on top o all mandatory and additional training, but do so in a safe manner.

Recruitment: we are comfortable with staff numbers at the current time but are looking forward to benefitting from a number of competent, compassionate people who may look to enter the care sector in coming weeks. As always, we welcome any recommendations or referrals for people you know who may be looking for work – often our best recruits are those who come to us via word of mouth.

Visitors Policy

We are aware that the current policy of no visiting for relatives is hard on families and on our residents, and we are all too conscious of the trade offs we make between physical and mental health. We are working with the National Care Forum and with other care homes to explore avenues to enable visiting to take place safely, including the option of extending our testing programme to include designated family members who can then safely access the home. This is early stage thinking but we hope to have some updates in due course. Would those attending the meeting be happy to participate in any testing programmes for visitors? Overall, yes. Any adjustments to visitors policy will take heed of the fact that our residents vary in their mobility and not all can make it outside or even to another indoor room on site.

[Note: visitors policy has been revised since the meeting, see below]

Activities update

We are working extra hard to ensure there are plenty of activities going on across the homes at all times. We have had a new joiner to the team as well to help enable this. Coming up in the next little while we have a busy fortnight with Halloween, Fireworks night, and Diwali. Lots of arts and crafts taking place around the homes alongside the regular clubs such as cooking club. Individual time is also being spent with those who choose not to or are not able to participate in the group activities.

Christmas plans

We are conscious that Christmas will soon be upon us and we are hoping to be able to allow some form of visiting nearer to Christmas to enable families to greet each other during the festive season. More details will be available as they become clear. We also welcome any videos or any images of family members that you would like to share with residents so we can play them/ show them to the relevant resident. These can be emailed through to activities@askhamvillagecommunity.com where Kerrie can pick them up and do the needful.

Visiting and family is a huge part of Christmas and we are sorry that we will not be able to invite you all to Askham for the usual carols and mince pies, however we are exploring options for a virtual replacement. More to follow soon we hope. Meanwhile, residents are busy with preparing decorations and staff are looking forward to our annual ‘best dressed home’ competition.

AOB

Thank you to everyone for their patience and perseverance with managing through these tough times.

Notes will be shared for this meeting and previous meetings that have not been received.

Updates on visiting policy since the meeting

 

From 16th November we are pleased to be able to welcome pre-booked visits of upto 20 minutes. Please note the following guidelines:

  • Visits are to be booked with the Lead Nurse of the relevant unit
  • The visitors briefing document must be signed on arrival
  • Visits will not be restricted to a specific day, but will be at the Lead Nurse discretion so as to manage total numbers and ensure cleaning can be undertaken satisfactorily
  • Visits will take place in designated areas only. Note: This is a change from previous policy where relatives could visit downstairs bedrooms through the external door. This is not permitted at this time.
  • On arrival, visitors are asked to go directly to the relevant area. Please do not arrive more than 5 minutes before your scheduled visit.
  • Designated areas are as follows and have been selected on the basis of having different doors for residents / relatives:
    • Askham Court: Sensory room [please use the entrance from the courtyard]
    • Askham Grove: Downstairs red lounge [please use the entrance from the back of Grove, follow the path round]
    • Askham Hall: Function Suite [please use the entrance from the courtyard]
    • Askham House: Downstairs dining room [please use the entrance from the garden, accessed through the courtyard]
    • Askham Place: Conservatory [please use the entrance from the courtyard behind the laundry]
  • Designated areas have been set up with screens and wipe clean chairs at a suitable distance for the safety of all
  • We ask all visitors to wear a face mask and use the hand sanitiser available on arrival.
  • Toilets and café facilities will not be available for visitors
  • We regret that refreshments will not be available

Any resident who may need special arrangements outside of this policy to facilitate visits will need to be addressed on a case by case basis. If you think this applies to you, please liase with the Manager and a risk assessed approach to visiting will be explored.

For copies of previous meetings, please liase with your Manager as these can be made available to you on request.