Visits in RSA 7 days a week and up to 45 minutes

2021-08-02T18:52:29.014Z

Visits in Rsa assisted health residences for the elderly 7 days a week and for an adequate duration of up to 45 minutes, protection of privacy when requesting the green pass and "cautious" use of quick swabs for access to facilities to prevent them from decreasing the time of the visits. These are some of the indications contained in the new 'Circular on the access / exit of guests and visitors to the residential structures of the territorial network' issued by the Ministry of Health. The note, the ministry emphasizes, was issued "in relation to the various and numerous requests for clarification received regarding the access / exit methods of guests and visitors to hospitality and long-term care facilities, assisted health residences (RSA), hospices, rehabilitation facilities ". The same Minister of Health Roberto Speranza, in a letter to the coordinator of the Health Commission of the Conference of the Regions, Raffaele Donini, recommends the maximum diffusion of the circular in the territory precisely to guarantee uniform access to Rsa. In compliance with current legislation and guidelines, the note underlines, "attention is drawn to the opportunity to ensure access to RSA and to nursing homes for people with disabilities, every day of the week including holidays, ensuring that the visit takes place in a time appropriate to the need for assistance, possibly lasting up to 45 minutes ". The note also recalls that, referring to the ordinance ofMay 8, 2021, the green certifications COVID-19, "are exhibited by family members and visitors, at the time of access to the facility in question, exclusively to the persons in charge of the related checks and in compliance with the provisions on the protection of personal data, with consequent exclusion of the possibility of collecting, storing and subsequent processing of the data relating to health contained in the same certifications ". Furthermore, with regard to the possibility of providing as a requirement for access to RSA facilities the execution of rapid antigenic swabs also by persons in possession of the COVID certification for another reason, "it is recommended - we read - to evaluate this precautionary measure with the utmost caution in order to avoid that it may represent an unjustified limitation on the right of visit ". Another aspect is that referred to the temporary exits of guests from residential structures:" provided for by the current legislation, which is sufficient - the circular states - that these subjects are equipped with the green COVID-19 certifications, without it being necessary, after their return, to resort to specific isolation measures, except in particular cases referred to the decisions of the Health Departments ". The note finally invites the Departments to" carry out random checks on the application of all the measures, protocols and guidelines adopted on the subject,as well as to want to ensure the maximum dissemination of the aforementioned operational indications to all the structures of the national health service (therefore including nursing homes and nursing homes for people with disabilities), so as to ensure their uniform application throughout the national territory "." The decisions communicated by the Government must now be applied promptly and the coordinator of the Health Councilors must listen to us in the next 48 hours to better understand the enormous emotional, mental and physical discomfort for the weakest subjects ", is the comment of Dario Francolino , President of ORSAN - National RSA Observatory. The Health Directors "they can only limit the visits in case of changed negative epidemiological conditions and not make the good and the bad weather evading the requests of us family members. If you need a health penalty shield to oblige medical directors to comply with the law, let's do it, as has already happened - he concludes - for doctors and nurses ".