People living in care homes are being treated by Public Health England as if they are “different species”, according to a campaigner whose organisation has launched a challenge to a ban on residents making trips.
The action is being taken by John’s Campaign, which says official guidance fails to accurately express the law and to advise care homes on their legal obligations to people aged 65 and over.
The campaign, which advocates for the rights of people with dementia, wrote to the Department of Health and Social Care, in December to warn it was considering a challenge to the lawfulness of guidance on visits out of care homes, published on 1 December 2020.
Now it has launched a legal action, arguing that any decision on whether persons can go on a visit outside a care home should be based on individual risk assessments. It is also fighting to overturn rules on self-isolation, which stipulate that anyone who leaves a care home must self-isolate for 14 days upon return.
Julia Jones, a co-founder of John’s Campaign, said residents had been “comprehensively ignored” during the pandemic.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “People living in care homes are people very often living towards the end of their lives, or they are people living with a learning disability, for whom their wellbeing is dependent on their routines. These people have been comprehensively ignored.
“We understand this guidance was prepared very hastily, we sent a message back at the time. They have had almost a month to make it better, they haven’t done so. We’re just not going to wait – this is unlawful and wrong.”
The campaign has said that the Equality Act 2010 prohibits indirect discrimination, but the guidance on care home visits “permits (indeed, requires) just such a discriminatory approach to be taken”.
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