A FLINTSHIRE care home has shared its simple solution to allow residents to continue seeing their families safely as the winter months draw in.

Wellfield Residential Care Home in Hawarden have converted their conservatory into a visiting space that is COVID-secure and will allow families the chance to come indoors and see their loved ones with having to stand outside in the cold.

Robert Noël, Care Home Manager, told the Leader that the safe space would give families and residents that much-needed reassurance that they were all safe and well should the country face more coronavirus challenges in the winter.

He said: “In January we were one of the first homes locally to close up to visitors as we prepared for the unknown. Now that we face a second wave potentially, we know what to expect in some sense, but that doesn’t make it any easier for residents and families who have gone months without a proper visit.

“Through lockdown, everyone appreciate that things needed to be in place to keep their loved ones safe from this virus but people were getting to a point where the window visits just weren’t the same.

“We asked ourselves what can we do so residents can still have some form of contact with their families – even if we do face another lockdown. That is when we came up with the visiting partition.”

Robert explained that the care home conservatory area was converted into their visitor space within a matter of weeks – sectioning off the room and creating a space for residents to comfortably sit and be able to chat through a microphone and see their loved ones in the other room through a window.

The minimal amount of furniture in the visitor’s space is going to be cleaned following every visit and will eb in line with coronavirus regulations.

Robert added: “The plan is to have the same timeslots rolling for all residents. We’re looking to get three visits a day out of the room from Monday to Friday which should give all our residents a chance to see their families at least one a fortnight.

“We do have birthdays coming up and are making some adjustments for them where needed but largely keeping the visits on the same running order. It’s going to make a world of difference for the wellbeing of both family members and the residents.”

Robert adds that he hopes this idea can inspire other homes to come up with ideas to help ensure visits can happen safely during the winter months.