Coronavirus

We want to reassure those we provide housing, care and support for, that we are doing everything we can to keep people safe during this time.

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Coronavirus

Last reviewed: 11 January 2021

While we endeavour to keep this content as up to date as possible, please consult local services if you have any specific questions – particularly in relation to visiting.

Care Homes and Reablement Centres closed to visitors

From Thursday 7 January 2021 our Care Homes and Reablement Centres will be closed to all but essential visitors.

Following the announcement of a national lockdown, and with increasing community transmission of the virus, we have taken the difficult decision to close our homes and reablement centres to all but essential visits.

Our first priority has, and always will be, to do everything we can to keep our residents and colleagues safe. The new variant of the virus is highly transmissible and we have seen positive test results increasing across our homes.

We understand how important visiting is and how difficult it is not seeing loved ones for prolonged periods of time. Our teams are ready to support telephone and video calls to ensure families and friends can keep in touch.

Visiting will always be possible in the case of compassionate or emergency situations, following a risk assessment and appropriate measures being put in place.

We’d like to thank our residents’ relatives and loved ones for all of your support and understanding so far.

With the vaccine roll-out progressing, we hope it will not be long before families can be reunited once again.

Our Care Homes and Reablement centres will remain open to new admissions where not in an outbreak situation.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your relevant home directly:

Deerhurst

Glastonbury

Little Heath Care Home

Little Heath Reablement Centre

Orchard Grove Reablement Centre

Robinson House

Saffron Gardens

Extra Care Housing & Woodland Court Retirement Living Village

Closures:

Our Colliers Gardens Extra Care scheme and our Woodland Court retirement village are currently closed to all visitors following outbreaks. Once an outbreak has ended, 28 days after the last positive case, the location will be able to reopen – pending Public Health approval.

All other sites:

All planned care and support will continue to be delivered by our on-site teams.

As a result of government restrictions, visits from family and friends must not take place indoors unless they are part of a ‘support bubble’.

A ‘support bubble’ is where a household with one adult joins with another household. Households in that ‘support bubble’ can still visit each other, stay overnight, and visit outdoor public places together.

Community Services

Visits to our community clients continue. It may be necessary to make temporary changes to visits so we can ensure the needs of our most vulnerable clients are taken care of first.

We will ensure our clients are communicated with about any such changes.

Where clients are clinically extremely vulnerable we will work hard to minimise the number of carers who complete their daily visits to reduce the level of risk.

Sheltered Housing

All communal areas, apart from laundries and bin stores, are closed, but we will maintain some staff presence on-site to provide support and advice for residents.

A number of our sheltered housing tenants have tested positive. We would like to remind all tenants of the advice to:

  • Wash hands – keep washing your hands regularly
  • Cover face – wear a face covering in enclosed spaces
  • Make space – stay at least 2 metres apart – or 1 metre with a face covering or other precautions

No-one will lose their home as a result of Coronavirus. If you are a Brunelcare housing tenant, and you are worried about paying your rent or other bills because of Coronavirus or the need to self-isolate, please rest assured that your home is secure. We would encourage anyone with concerns about money to contact a member of our team to discuss them.

Repairs and maintenance

Due to increasing community transmission of the virus, we are only responded to emergency repairs.

Tenants and residents should continue to report emergency repairs, in the normal way. This includes:

  • No heating or hot water
  • Major roof leaks
  • Uncontainable or containable plumbing leaks
  • Gas leaks
  • Blocked drains
  • Serious electrical faults
  • Broken/jagged glass
  • Toilet not flushing where there is only one in the property
  • Insecure front door or windows
  • Door entry system not working
  • Shower repairs where resident unable to use a bath
  • Dangerous walls or fencing
  • Replacement light bulbs
  • Lift breakdown/entrapments

Brunelcare’s controlled distance process

Media Enquiries

All media/press enquiries should be direct to:

Matthew Bell, Marketing and Business Development Director
matthew.bell@brunelcare.org.uk

More information

If you have any concerns about visiting a Brunelcare site, or about a loved one, please contact the management team at that location.

If in doubt, email: info@brunelcare.org.uk or call 0117 914 4200.