As with all things in 2020, visiting your family in a care home this Christmas, will be quite different. As care homes are already typically under-staffed and under-funded, the additional workload associated with care home visits, at Christmas, will put even more strain on these facilities. All visitors will need to mindful of the additional workload on staff, need to wear appropriate PPE and follow all infection control measures, within the care home.

The government has promised additional Christmas support for care homes and have so far sent out over a million lateral flow Covid tests, which provide results in about 20 minutes, to 385 of the largest care homes in the UK. Alongside this, an extra 46 million items of free PPE are also supposed to be sent out to care homes for visitations. It is estimated, by the National Care Forum Executive Director, that 3.6 million more hours of care staff time are needed during the holidays and the care home umbrella groups are requesting the additional support from the government, that has previously been promised.