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Warning over long lockdown for the elderly

Community care home bosses back plea from Age UK director Caroline Abrahams

May 6, 2020 15:49
Sunridge Court care home’s residents and staff were feeling patriotic and threw a party to celebrate the Queen's 90th birthday. During the afternoon the residents also watched a documentary following the Queen’s life
4 min read

Jewish organisations throughout Britain which deal with the care of older people have backed calls by the charity, Age UK, not to impose “blanket restrictions” or a “one-size-fits-all” policy if and when lockdown is eased. There are believed to be plans in place to restrict the movement of all people aged 70 and over, regardless of their medical conditions.

The support of bodies such as Cosgrove Care and Newark Care in Scotland, and The Fed in Manchester, echoes concern expressed on Sunday by the British Medical Association and the Royal College of GPs. A BMA statement said that “a blanket ban on any section of the population being prohibited from lockdown easing would be discriminatory and unacceptable”.

Last week Caroline Abrahams, the charity director of Age UK, made a vehement case for paying attention to the varying needs of older people. In a strongly-worded plea to the government, she said: “Proposing that everyone beyond a certain age puts their life on hold and hunkers down for many months or longer is, by definition, ageist and deeply objectionable”.

Speaking to the JC, Ms Abrahams said: “There are suggestions that the way Covid-19 works, it can have a particular impact on people as they get older, which can make you more severely ill, and more likely to die”. It was not simply the case, she said, “that as people get oder they are more likely to have other health conditions that make them more susceptible. But doctors are saying that there may be more to it than that, that there’s something about what happens to people’s bodies as they get older which means that if they do get the virus, they can have a much more serious reaction to it.”