Tom Lumsden, a partner at commercial property specialist law firm CooperBurnett LLP examines the legal issues for care homes arising from the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
It is stating the obvious to say that the effects of the Covid-19 outbreak have been, and will continue to be for some time, challenging for UK businesses. This will especially be the case for the care home sector for two principal reasons.
Firstly, because most care homes comprise buildings in which there are numerous vulnerable residents who are elderly or particularly susceptible to the virus and secondly, in order to function properly, most care homes require large numbers of staff. The concept of social distancing is therefore impossible to achieve in a care home setting.
In addition it is virtually impossible to operate a care home in a total bubble sealed off from the rest of the world, as there will need to be necessary contact with people from the outside world in terms of food and medical deliveries, GP visits and so on. It would usually be impractical for staff to live on-site permanently, even if they wanted to do so.
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