You will have seen the announcement about the latest lockdown in England starting this week. We are of course disappointed about this, but given the rising infection rates we understand that it is necessary.

The health and wellbeing of residents and employees is our top priority. We continue to follow Government guidance.

The majority of residents and employees are safe and well. People are in good spirits and are well supported, and enjoyed Christmas despite the restrictions this year. I am grateful for the hard work of our teams in providing great care every day, and thank you for the many kind words and messages of support we have received. Please keep all feedback coming, directly to me, to the Home or Service manager, or via the covid support email: covid19support@fremantletrust.org

We continue to follow infection prevention and control protocols, and have good levels of personal protective equipment (PPE). We are testing all residents and employees regularly.

If your relative becomes unwell you will be contacted directly and kept informed. If you have specific questions about your relatives or friends and their care and wellbeing, please contact the Home or Service Manager. 

We will continue to facilitate safe visits to our homes and services. Visits can take place in garden areas, visitor rooms with screens, window visits and virtually. When residents are at the end of their life or very unwell, we will risk assess and facilitate bedroom visits. All visits will need to be booked with the home and limited to 30 minutes in most cases. All infection control measures will remain, including temperature checks, disinfection of footwear, hand washing and wearing of appropriate PPE. Visiting areas will be deep cleaned between visits. 

We understand that you may not wish to visit during this period, or be self-isolating or shielding. We will do our best to ensure that residents have access to devices to enable video and telephone calls if desired. We have good levels of cover, however, we may not always be able to respond quickly to requests where care teams are looking after residents.

Please contact the Home or Service manager if you have a question about the care of your relative or you wish to book a visit. 

We are still waiting for news of the vaccine and have been making requests for information to the NHS locally. We hope to begin vaccinations next week. We want everyone to benefit from the protection and reassurance the vaccine provides. We understand that a minority of people may not be able to have the vaccine for health reasons. We will continue to protect them from infection. We will be in contact with you if your relative requires a ‘Best Interest’ decision regarding the vaccine. If you have any questions or would like more information about the vaccine, please speak to the Home or Service Manager.

We have a dedicated helpline for queries covid19support@fremantletrust.org and you can call us on 0333 005 8735. 

We will continue to follow Government guidance for visits and if our visitor policy changes we will update you. This is a dynamic situation so please bear with us.

I’d encourage you to keep up to date with what is happening at The Fremantle Trust on this News section of the website - and also via our Facebook and Twitter pages. 

Thank you for your ongoing support and co-operation.

Sara Livadeas
Chief Executive