Click here to the updated government guidance
Summary of changes
1. Updated to clarify that a period of isolation is continuous and does not restart on discharge or entry to a care home. The isolation period should include days in the hospital, so when entering a care home, an individual will only need to isolate for the remainder of the 10 days since symptoms or a positive test
2. Updated to inform if an individual tests negative for COVID-19 and has no symptoms of COVID-19 and is being discharged to a care home from a location in the hospital where there was an active outbreak, they should be isolated for 10 days from the date of admission to the care home, regardless of whether their overnight stay was planned ( elective) or unplanned
3. Urgent admission from the community section – updated to reflect the amendment to the local transfer of care testing pathway
4. A note to care providers to remind particularly in the coming winter months to ensure a clinical assessment is carried out for those individuals who are symptomatic but testing negative for COVID-19 as there may be other respiratory viruses circulating
Click here for updated guidance on Admissions to care homes from different locations- Checks, isolation, and testing
Urgent care home admissions from the community process update
Dear Care Home Manager,
We appreciate how supportive and accommodating you have been during the Covid-19 pandemic. While we start to learn to live and work with Covid-19 care homes are still working under some national guidance in order to keep service users and staff safe.
We are writing to remind you of the following guidance COVID-19 supplement to the infection prevention and control resource for adult social care – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) specifically relating to URGENT admissions into your home from the community. Urgent admission is defines as
Emergency admission is defined as where “Urgent care in a Care Home is required for an individual if failure to provide a community care placement would result in serious risk to the individual or their carer and an immediate need of hospital admission if the individual is not transferred to a community setting”.
The national guidance states the following regarding URGENT admissions.
Urgent care home admissions from the community
For urgent admissions to a care home from the community, the care home manager should find out whether the resident being admitted has had a lateral flow or PCR test and, if so, when and what the result was.
If the individual has taken a lateral flow or PCR test within 72 hours of the urgent admission into the care home, the care home manager should share the result with the relevant and responsible person. This may be a delegated responsibility.
If a PCR or lateral flow test has not been taken or was taken more than 72 hours before urgent admission, the individual should be tested again with a lateral flow test by the care home. If the test result is positive, the individual should isolate in the care home and follow the guidance below on care home residents who are symptomatic or test positive for COVID-19.
We acknowledge that urgent admissions are infrequent, and the majority of admissions are planned with more than 72 hours allowing enough time to obtain a PCR result and this pathway continues. However we kindly ask that on the rare occasion that urgent admission is required you facilitate this guidance by permitting the admission and performing a Lateral Flow Test upon arrival in line with guidance.
Please note that this does not apply to admissions from hospitals where the risk is considered greater, and a negative PCR result is still required prior to admission.
Yours Sincerely
Geraldine Bruce Head of Health Protection, Public Health.
21.9.2022