Coronavirus Latest Update

Important Update from Bellavista Nursing Home Cardiff & Barry

Issue DATE : 09/03/2021

Update re: Mothers’ Day -Thank you all for your patience throughout this Pandemic, and your kindness and thoughts shown to our staff and residents. We are currently looking into how to safely manage Mothers’ day for all our residents, and at this time the guidance states we are unable to accept fresh flowers/bouquet’s, we have no guidance for potted plants, however we are unable to disinfect these, we can accept chocolates and silk flowers as these can be disinfected, we also would like to ask, please can you bring in the items for Mothers’ day early as they have to be isolated for 72 hours before we can give them, and can you clearly label the gifts, this is also in the guidance.

Home visits: -We currently have no official guidance on how to move forward with visiting, and we are actively trying to have some clarity on how we move to the next stage safely, whilst most of our residents have had the first vaccination, they are yet to receive the second, and as they are all shielding they are all still very vulnerable, we will be looking at a designated visiting area with a screen for safety, as previously managed until we have further advice, we request that anyone who makes an appointment will need to arrive 30 minutes early as a Lateral Flow Test will need to be completed, and PPE will be provided for you, and an appointment system will be put in place, we are hoping to have more information regarding visits from the regulators and government this week .

Once again, thank you all and hope to see you all soon

Important Update from Bellavista Nursing Home Cardiff & Barry

Issue Date: 21/12/2020

Due to the increase in Coronavirus confirmed cases throughout Wales and Cardiff area and the recent Government announcement we feel it best to suspend all pod visits in our Cardiff & Barry Nursing Home until further review. We understand this news may feel frustrating especially with it being so close to Christmas but we feel this is currently the right decision to keep our residents and staff safe. This means any booked visits you have will be cancelled with effect from Sunday 20th December 2020. We are happy to continue to support your loved ones to remain in contact with Skype and phone calls and we will continue to update you by phone, email and on our Facebook page on what our residents have been up to and also any changes in the guidance.

We have worked hard with your fantastic support to keep Covid 19 out of our homes and we intend to keep it that way. By suspending visits we will reduce the risk of infection , we do hope you understand our need to do this and that you will support this difficult decision. We plan to review this decision again very soon and will notify you of any further updates in relation to visiting arrangements.

We would like to assure you that we have no suspected cases within the homes and this measure has been taken for prevention and to protect the vulnerable adults in our care. If there is an emergency a decision on entry will be made in exceptional circumstances and you are welcome to ring the home at any times to be provided with updates or to speak to residents on the phone. Additional measures have also been put in to place within the homes. Our staff will do all they can to ensure that life remains as comfortable and sociable as possible. We will continue with Christmas celebrations in a safe manner. We will still ensure that vital medical appointments will be kept where possible.
Thank you for your continued support and understanding during this time, please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns.

Update from Bellavista Nursing Home Cardiff

Issue Date : 20/11/2020

Dear all Family Members and Friends.

We would like to thank you for your endless patience and support during this difficult time. We are mindful that you are very eager to see your loved ones and have been using the past few weeks to develop plans to allow us to accommodate this. We apologise for any delay in getting this announcement out but a lot of thought and planning has had to be put in place to ensure that we can allow visiting safely. Having said this we are pleased to inform you that next week work will be commencing in the homes to develop visiting outside pods. We will be providing a further update at the end of next week outlining the visiting procedure in regards to safety and arranging these appointments. Once again, we would like to thank you for your patience and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Infection status of our Cardiff home:

Currently our home is COVID-19 free. Our goal is to be able to keep the homes free of infection and manage infection control measures, social distancing and visiting so that we can sustain this status and slowly re-introduce more of the features of normal life.

Keeping our residents physically and mentally active:

We are very aware that an important part of living in a Nursing home is being able to socialise and enjoy physical, mental and spiritual activity that is vital for overall wellbeing, and we are delighted that our weekly activity plans going to our homes, have great new ways of keeping everyone active, including a number of virtual activities whilst ensuring that the group activities are smaller, adhering to physical distancing advice, and that cleanliness routines are implemented. Our residents and patients are thoroughly enjoying this.

Update from Barry Bellavista Nursing Home:

Issue Date : 20/11/2020

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued ongoing support and patience during these exceptionally difficult times. We appreciate this has been a testing time and that you are eager to once again see your loved ones. Over the past few weeks, we have been developing plans on how we can facilitate these visits safely. We are commencing work next week in the home to provide a designated visiting room to reunite you with loved ones.

These visits will be by appointment to ensure safety and guidelines in relation to social distancing, infection control protocols are followed in accordance to government guidelines.

We currently continue to be COVID 19 free and our goal is to keep the home infection free and manage infection control measures and social distancing. We would like to sustain this status so that looking forward we can begin to re-introduce more of a normal life.

Our dedicated activity team continue to support those in our care with physical, mental and emotional well-being through a varied activity programs and continue to promote contact with loved ones using video calls, Zoom and Skype.

Latest update from Bellavista Nursing Home Cardiff

Issue Date : 06/10/2020

First of all, we like to send our love and thanks to all families, for your continued support and patience. We will continue to review the visitations at our nursing homes, and are continually following the current trend in increased cases in Cardiff and the surrounding areas. We held a meeting yesterday to review the safety of visiting in the home and were all in agreement, we will continue with the suspension of visitation due to the cases continuing to increase daily, we will review this again on the 19^th of October and when the cases appear to be slowing down we will cautiously look at resuming visits in the garden area of the home where they can be conducted safely.

The team have come up with lots of ideas to improve the visitation experience within the Gazebo looking presently at closing it off to the elements where possible, and the purchase of heaters and comfortable chairs, please be assured when we do deem it is safe to do so we will act on getting the visits up and running again. Please continue to contact the activities team to arrange phone calls and skype sessions as normal, the team are working really hard to accommodate all requests, and to continue with their other activity programmes.

Please be assured we have not had a positive case within the home for staff or residents and continue to follow guidance from the welsh government, Local authority and Public Health Wales

Feel free to contact us at any time with any further information you require. We will keep you updated as and when we make changes to our visiting policy.

Issue Date: 28th September 2020

Latest update from Bellavista Nursing Home Cardiff

Bellavista Nursing Home continues to take the coronavirus situation very seriously and follow guidance from the Welsh Government (WG), Public Health Wales (PHW) and Cardiff Council.

Temporary suspension of outdoor visits have been extended by a further week. This decision was not made lightly but to protect our residents and staff from harm given the increasing trend of lockdowns including Cardiff as well as the number of cases rising in Cardiff. The Second wave of the outbreak appears to have started and it is only correct that we do everything within our power to protect everyone living and working in the home. A review with regard to visitation will be conducted on 5^th October and we will communicate with you further. We will be taking this time to look into further measures to make the outdoor visiting more feasible during the winter months and to upgrade our Gazebo Visiting Point. Please rest assured we have still not had a positive case within the home but we cannot afford to be complacent our staff are still tested fortnightly and residents if Symptomatic.

We will keep you updated as and when we make changes to our visiting policy. Special arrangements will however be made for indoor visits with full PPE in certain end of life care and extenuating situations. Please feel free to contact us if you wish to discuss or have any concerns.

Important Update from Bellavista Nursing Home Cardiff Issue Date: 08th September 2020

Due to the increase in new Coronavirus confirmed cases throughout Wales and Cardiff area, we feel it best to suspend all garden visits in our Cardiff Nursing Home until further review. We understand this news may feel frustrating but we feel this is currently the right decision to keep our residents and staff safe. This means any booked visits you have will be cancelled with effect from Wednesday 09th September 2020.

We are happy to continue to support your loved ones to remain in contact with Skype and phone calls and we will continue to update you by phone, email and on our Facebook page on what our residents have been up to and also any changes in the guidance.

We would like to assure you that we have no suspected cases within the home and this measure has been taken for prevention and to protect the vulnerable adults in our care. If there is an emergency a decision on entry will be made in exceptional circumstances and you are welcome to ring the home at any times to be provided with updates or to speak to residents on the phone. Additional measures have also been put in to place within the home. Our staff will do all they can to ensure that life in our Homes remain as comfortable and sociable as possible. We will still ensure that vital medical appointments will be kept where possible.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding during this time, please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns.

INFORMATION TO ALL VISITORS & RESIDENTS – Bellavista Cardiff Issue Date: 25 August 20

ENHANCED MEASURES & CONTROLLED VISITING ARRANGEMENTS

We were warmed by the announcement made by the government last week to ease lockdown and begin visiting from 29^th of August within the nursing home. As this announcement is only guidance this change will still be subject to our confirmation and at present we believe the best way to continue forward temporarily is to continue with the Gazebo visits this is solely to ensure the protection of our residents , staff and the visiting relatives and professionals . Please bear with us whilst we continue to review the visiting restrictions over the coming weeks , the home still remains free of any positive confirmed cases and symptomatic cases and we believe if we continue with our current arrangement hopefully this can remain. We understand this is difficult especially for yourself and the residents who are unable to leave there room but please be assured we will be reviewing this in due time and your family/friends are receiving the best possible care and support and our activities teams are available for Skype Video calls please email activitycardiff@bellavistanursinghome.com to book. Please be advised appointments in the garden Gazebo will continue as appointment only and the same rules and procedures that were applied previously maintain.

Infection status of our homes:

Currently all of our homes are COVID-19 free. Our goal is to be able to keep the homes free of infection and manage infection control measures, social distancing and visiting so that we can sustain this status and slowly re-introduce more of the features of normal life.

Admissions :

Our homes remain open to admissions as usual and we are following the current guidelines issued from the public health authorities to ensure the wellbeing of all. It is important we continue to support the healthcare system and individuals who require a safe care environment.

We will continue to keep this policy under review and provide updates as appropriate. Your understanding is very much appreciated by all our staff and once again thanks for all your support in continuing the safety of all residents and staff at Bellavista.

Updated : 11/06/2020

Important update about Covid 19 from Bellavista Nursing Home Cardiff .

Dear all Family Members and Friends of Bellavista.

Thank you for all your support the past three months, it has been a difficult time for everyone. We would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your co-operation and support during our period of lock down, we understand how difficult it will have been to not to see and spend time with your loved ones. We are proud to say that we are surrounded by a professional, skilled, dedicated, and compassionate team who are willing to put the care of our residents first. We have been truly humbled by seeing everyone work together using their expertise, and positive attitude to do the right thing. Our activities team have been working endlessly to ensure all family members have still maintained contact with their loved ones, either via video call or chat, if you have been unable to take part in a phone call or skype call please call us and we will be happy to arrange. We are so proud of all our staff at Bellavista who have gone above and beyond the past few months in support of this pandemic and would like to give them massive thanks and show our appreciation for their commitment. As you are aware we did have confirmed cases of Covid 19 in our Cardiff home, but we are delighted that the procedures we have put in place, such as an isolation unit, strict infection control procedures and quality care have been effective in limiting the spread of infection ,keeping our residents and staff members safe: however we sadly have lost few residents over the last few months to the pandemic and other natural causes and they are in our thoughts and prayers, we are confident the situation with in the home is stable now and we can look at moving forward in the near future. We have started to have enquiries into visiting at the home. Please be advised our visiting restrictions still remain the same at present, we will look at slowly easing restrictions when we are advised it is safe to do so by the Public Health Wales, local authority and Health Board. We hope to have an update on this in the coming weeks.

Infection control & Personal Protective Equipment:

We can assure you that we continue to take the appropriate precautionary measures to limit the risk of the coronavirus spreading in our care home, and we act swiftly each day, ensuring that we are up to date with the latest guidance and advice published by the Government and Public Health Wales.

Infection control is still very much at the heart of minute by minute work in the homes. Before the pandemic, we already had strict control audits for managing outbreaks of any respiratory virus or infection, and as more has become known about the Covid-19 virus we have followed new recommendations from Government and Public Health Wales, immediately communicating with our staff about appropriate PPE, hand washing and sanitisation of facilities .We are also keeping on top of our Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) supplies with daily stock checks and orders to ensure that our staff team have access to everything they need to work and care for our residents in a safe way

We are overwhelmed by all the wonderful gifts and letters of support from family members, community groups and schools. We thank you for your continued support and cooperation as we move safely through this pandemic.

Please keep in mind that until advised by home manager, current visitor restrictions will remain in place.

Maintaining a Safe Environment:

We continue to implement a number of measures to keep a safe environment for our staff and residents. As you will know, we were one of the first care groups to restrict non-essential visits to our care homes and put this in place prior to the Government advising it. In addition to maintaining this restriction, some other key initiatives include:

We have requested all residents for testing, and all staff members have been tested for COVID-19, with excellent ratio of negative results.
Daily temperature checks for all staff and residents
Thorough infection control procedures in place, including use of PPE and handwashing
Infection control training in place for all staff plus regular audits of procedures and handwashing
Heightened cleaning procedures
We are trying our best with a Social distancing policy now in place for our home
14-day precautionary isolation for all new residents who come to live in the care home and implementation of isolation procedures for any resident who shows any potential COVID-19 symptoms
Staff members are monitored daily and are following NHS guidelines, being careful to not attend work and to follow isolation guidelines if they, or anyone in their household displays COVID-19 symptoms
Staff members are not travelling to and from work in uniform, but are changing into uniform prior to starting their shift in the home, and then changing back into outdoor clothing before leaving.
Staff members are limiting what they are bringing into the care home and all belongings are being kept in a designated area away from residents

Once again Thank you for all your support and we look forward to hopefully being able to see you all at some point in the near future. If you have any questions or queries please do get in touch on info@bellavistanursinghome.com

Stay Safe

11/06/2020

Update on – March 20th 2020 :

Update from Bellavista nursing Home Barry & Cardiff:

We understand that the recent news regarding the growing number of COVID 19 (coronavirus) cases is worrying, particularly for those of you with loved ones living in our Barry and Cardiff Nursing Homes .Please be assured that residents’ health and wellbeing is at the heart of everything we do at Bellavista and that we are treating this situation with the utmost seriousness. We would like to assure you that we have no suspected cases within the home and this measure has been taken for prevention and to protect the vulnerable adults in our care .Our expert staff teams are already well versed in infection control and have robust policies in place to prevent and manage infections among residents and staff members. We also have a dedicated Action Team responsible for monitoring the situation daily and updating the guidance and advice we give to residents, their loved ones and our staff team. Regular updates will be made available in writing and on this webpage and facebook page as and when required. Life will continue as normal in the home.
We would like to thank everyone for their patience, understanding and goodwill in helping with our move to minimise non-essential visits at our homes

What we are doing in our Homes:

As a responsible provider of care, Bellavista nursing homes is continually monitoring GOV.UK and Public Health Board for advice about COVID-19. This includes following specific guidance for those in nursing and residential settings. At Bellavista Nursing Home we have decided to implement the following steps to help protect our residents as per the gov advice :

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-residential-care-supported-living-and-home-care-guidance/covid-19-guidance-on-residential-care-provision

We will continue to try and support those needing to visit residents in extreme circumstances, such as those who are receiving “End of Life Care”.
We have postponed all non-essential external trips for our residents to limit their exposure to coronavirus within the wider community.
We have undergone a review of all infection control policies and procedures and developed contingency plans for the management of a Coronavirus outbreak.
In accordance with government advice we have requested our staff to wash their hands often – with soap and water or use alcohol based hand sanitisers
(at least 60% alcohol content)
All Our staff have been made aware of how to clean and disinfect our Homes and offices.
In addition to the above, We started monitoring all our residents and staff temperature to ensure that it is not raised and to also establish that they do not have a cough or any other symptoms . Should we find that anyone have any symptoms that are associated with the virus, they will be denied access to the home for a period of 7 days.
Our Barry and Cardiff homes have now been set up for Skype calling to enable you to keep in touch and we are confident that our staff will do all they can to ensure that life in our services remains as comfortable and sociable as possible as we support them with delivering interactive activities.

Visiting

Due to the increase in Corona virus confirmed cases in the Cardiff area and for the safety of our residents our Cardiff and Barry home are still closed to visitors and will be until further notice.Staff and health professionals will be allowed entry. We would like to assure you that we have no suspected cases within the home and this measure has been taken for prevention and to protect the vulnerable adults in our care. Additional measures have also been put in to place within the home. If there is an emergency a decision on entry will be made in exceptional circumstances.We do understand that this may cause some emotional angst, but please reflect on the longer-term implications and the well being of our residents, you are welcome to ring the home at any times to be provided with updates or to speak to residents on the phone

Support for our residents and relatives and staff

Bellavista Nursing Homes is providing regular updates, reassurance and support to our all staff and fa email address for queries regarding COVID-19. if you have any questions or concerns, please contact by email admin@bellavistanursinghome.com or phone 02920494447( Cardiff), Barry (01446743983) .We will continue to update and keep you informed, as local NHS and Government guidance changes.

Many thanks for your Support during this tim