UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that “wherever possible” people will be given the “chance to say goodbye” to loved ones dying with Covid-19, after reports of the elderly dying alone.

Existing guidance says that visits to care homes and clinical settings “should be restricted to end of life care situations”, but in many cases, families have had their final conversations with loved ones over telephone and video calls.

Pledge to test all Scottish care home staff and patients with symptoms

Health secretary Matt Hancock during a media briefing in Downing Street, London

Mr Hancock said visits should be allowed provided family members wear the correct protective equipment.

He said “wanting to be with someone you love at the end of their life is one of the deepest human instincts”, and revealed he wept at reports of 13-year-old Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, from south London dying without a parent at his bedside.

The Scottish Government backed calls for families to have access to loved ones at the end of their lives. “We absolutely understand the importance of visiting loved ones in care settings and while routine care home visits are suspended in Scotland, we have guidance in place to ensure visiting care homes is restricted to essential visitors and family visits restricted to end of life care situations,” a spokesman said.

During the daily press briefing from Downing Street, Mr Hancock also said the UK Government was making it “crystal clear” that it was unacceptable for advanced care plans – including do not resuscitate orders – to be applied to all elderly people.

“This must always be a personalised process, as it always has been,” he said.

Responding to criticism over the number of deaths in care homes across England, Mr Hancock pledged that any care worker needing a test for the illness would get it, along with any resident being discharged from hospital back to a care home.

In a bid to show the sector the government was responding to concerns over a lack of testing and personal protective equipment (PPE), the Health Secretary said there would be “single brand” with a badge for care workers, helping them access similar perks to NHS staff.

“This badge will be a badge of honour in a very real sense, allowing social care staff proudly and publicly to identify themselves, just like NHS staff do with that famous blue and white logo,” he said.

The care sector has campaigned for recognition of a badge since last year. But Rehana Azam, national officer of the GMB union, said: “Our care workers need more than a badge and a pat on their head to define their precious role in society.

“They need the protective equipment and testing on the front line now to protect their lives.”

“There is nothing stopping relatives saying goodbye in care homes now as long as they have sufficient PPE. So this goes back to the problem of there not being sufficient PPE for the staff, never mind families,” said a spokesman for MHA, one of the largest charitable providers of care homes in the UK.

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Close family to be allowed coronavirus goodbyes to loved ones

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