We could go out of Covid-19 isolation, shutdown and quarantining, then back in again for repeated periods right up until November, 2021, staff have been warned at some Sydney hospitals.

The NSW lockdown will now officially last for 90 days. This has been confirmed as we hear from sources inside hospitals that staff are being warned successive waves of Covid-19 outbreaks – although decreasing in severity – are predicted until November 2021.

Apart from impacts on many others, this has serious implications for the elderly in nursing homes. What do their rights look like now? While many care facilities are good and well-run, some are not.

And how will their palliative care needs be assessed as their access to family and community is completely redefined?

In NSW, under our current 90 day lockdown, one of the only nine reasons we are now allowed to leave home includes: “Dealing with an emergency or on compassionate grounds.”

This is the closest we’ve got to permission to visit parents at the gate of aged care facilities. This means we are relying on the good-will of staff to bring parents out to see family, it is not an entitlement.

Exceptions to lock down laws are being made to visit the elderly in a palliative care context but what this is exactly is still not clearly defined.

We will update when we know more.

This story updates https://good-grief.com.au/this-is-a-cry-from-the-heart/

Since that piece was published we have been allowed ‘gate visits’. The first was very successful but the quality has varied since.

The NSW lockdown will now officially last for  90 days. https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news/news_article?sq_content_src=%2BdXJsPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGZWJpenByZC5wb2xpY2UubnN3Lmdvdi5hdSUyRm1lZGlhJTJGODM5OTcuaHRtbCZhbGw9MQ%3D%3D

Lack of access to people in nursing homes is happening throughout the world.

https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/health/info-2020/preventing-coronavirus-in-nursing-homes.html