Change to Care Home Visiting Restrictions

Dear residents and families,

Now that the  New Zealand moved to Phase 3 in its Omicron response. I’m writing to update you on what this new phase means for our residents at Bupa and their families.

Currently at Bupa a number of our care homes are temporarily closed to visitors, and our villages are operating under restrictions, while we navigate various exposure incidents and outbreaks.

Our team members have been working incredibly hard and we are so grateful for their continued dedication to our residents while we navigate working in full personal protective equipment (PPE) and applying outbreak precautions and additional infection prevention control measures.

What Phase Three means for us at Bupa

Only confirmed cases of COVID-19 and their household contacts will be required to self-isolate. All other people are asked to monitor for symptoms but are not required to self-isolate.

The use of rapid antigen tests (RATs) is increasing. At Bupa, we require all our team members and all contractors to take a RAT test on arrival at work, before they begin working.  Our team members, together with other critical healthcare workers across the country, are able to continue to work if they are household contacts so long as they are asymptomatic (or have very mild symptoms) and return a negative rapid antigen test (RAT) before starting work each day.

With widespread community transition now in New Zealand, we have also decided to make some slight changes to the visiting guidelines for our care homes so we can best protect our residents. We will be asking all visitors to please undergo a RAT test on arrival at the care home and before visiting your loved one.

Please note, unvaccinated visitors will still be required to wear full PPE while visiting under compassionate grounds within the care home. However, they are not required to wear full PPE if the visit happens outside.

In order to further protect our residents, we will be limiting visiting hours at our care homes to between 11am and 2pm each day. If you are unable to visit during these times, please contact the care home to organise your visit.

What you can do to protect yourself at all phases

·       Get your booster as soon as possible. 

·       Wear a mask, scan in, and present your pass everywhere you go.

·       Keep up healthy habits such as washing hands, physical distancing and staying home if you are sick.

Please know we are doing everything we can to look after the health and wellbeing of our residents and our team members during these challenging times. Thank you for your support.

Ngā mihi,

Caro

Carolyn Cooper

Managing Director – Bupa NZ Care Homes and Villages