A request for more humanity during visits to hospitals and nursing homes

The League of Families, the League of Human Rights and their co-signatories call for a more humane approach to the issue and for a uniform legal framework, debated and voted on in parliament.

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As a clearing settles in a cloudy sky for two years by the coronavirus crisis, people hospitalized or residing in rest homes and their families continue to juggle with strict restrictive measures and variable rules between institutions, denounce Monday 12 organizations in a joint press release.

There are, for example, those parents forced to take turns with a sick child when the hospital accepts only one accompanying person, those elderly people behind the window of the nursing home, the telephone glued to their ear to hear what their grandchildren under the age of 12 have to tell them from the doorstep, since they cannot enter the building. And all these others hospitalized or losing their autonomy, “in physical and psychological suffering to which is added total or partial isolation due to very strict visiting conditions”, note the Gang of angry old people, the social movement of seniors Enéo or the non-profit association Générations, which defends the development of the youngest.

“The chief doctor of each hospital can restrict the possibilities of visits depending on the situation in and out of the hospital. Department heads also have the option of setting different rules for their own department.” On the same day, the conditions of visit are here reinforced, there relaxed, still point the signatories.

In rest homes, these rules restricting fundamental rights are enacted by circulars, and are therefore neither debated nor voted on in parliament. In Brussels, the elderly thus see their right to visits depend on the vaccination rate within the nursing home: under 90%, the rights of residents are restricted, whether they themselves are vaccinated or not, illustrate the 12 organizations .

“By limiting the number of visits, visitors or by imposing conditions linked to the age of these, the establishments are guilty of an unlawful interference with the rights guaranteed by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights , since no legal framework provides for this restriction”, underline the organizations.

The League of Families, the League of Human Rights, the Gang of Angry Old People, Eneo, Espace Seniors, LUSS, Senoah, Respect Seniors, Aging Well, Senior Montessori, Entr’Ages and ASBL Générations therefore call for development of a legal framework after a democratic debate to set common rules for the different institutions, applicable according to the different stages of the health situation.

The 12 also demand a minimum right to visits, guaranteed regardless of the health situation, and the possibility for residents of nursing homes to come and go freely, “in the same way and under the same conditions as the rest of the population. “. They are finally calling for the end of bubbles in nursing homes, limiting contact between two and five visitors to the capital, and “special attention for children of all ages” so that they can visit their loved ones in nursing homes. or hospitalized and be accompanied by both parents when they are hospitalized.

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