A 90-year-old patient (R) of Gangnam Medical Treatment Hospital in Gwangju, southwestern South Korea, meets with her daughter through a transparent barrier on March 9, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 9 (Korea Bizwire) — Nursing homes and long-term care hospitals for the elderly nationwide were allowed to partially resume in-person or non-contact visits Tuesday, paving the ground for dramatic reunions between patients and family members after such meetings were prohibited for about a year due to fears of coronavirus transmissions.
Some long-term care facilities across the country permitted face-to-face or non-contact meetings between family members in accordance with the government’s recently changed guidelines, whereas many others remained undecided about such visitations due mainly to absence of prior communications with authorities.
Face-to-face meetings were allowed for seriously or terminally ill patients on the strict condition that all visitors must wear protective gear, such as gowns, gloves and face shields.
At Gangnam Medical Treatment Hospital, a long-term care hospital for the elderly in the southwestern city of Gwangju, a 90-year-old woman was allowed to meet with her four children through a transparent barrier for the first time in five months.
The four children said they had never imagined they would not be able to see their mother for two seasons since their last gathering during last fall’s Chuseok holiday.
Their visit time lasting 10 minutes or so passed quickly as they asked their mother numerous questions about her health and life in hospital.
“The family members’ longing for reunions seems to have been enormous as they were only allowed to see each other through video calls. We’ll make all possible efforts to ensure even the non-contact meetings will proceed without a hitch,” an official at the Gwangju hospital said.
This photo provided by Gaeun Hospital shows a son (standing and in full protective gear) meeting with his ailing mother at the hospital in Bucheon, west of Seoul, on March 9, 2021.
Son Yong-chang, an 83-year-old patient who was admitted to a long-term care hospital in Bucheon on the western outskirts of Seoul last November, was more fortunate, as she was allowed to meet face-to-face with her 59-year-old son named Lee Yong-bum for the first time in four months.
The hospital permitted the in-person visit by Lee after concluding that Son needs emotional stability.
Lee was allowed to meet with her mother in a private hospital room for 10 minutes after passing a rapid antigen test for COVID-19 and putting on all kinds of protective gear.
Son said she was very happy to hold her son’s hand, though gloved, while Lee said it was so nice to be able to see his mother in person.
In the greater Seoul area, few convalescent hospitals and nursing homes permitted such visitations by family members, as the government’s official guidelines have yet to be delivered to them.
“We have received a lot of telephone inquires about resumption of visits by family members but have not replied properly, as we have not heard anything about the matter from the concerned community health center,” said an official at a nursing home in Incheon, west of Seoul.
An elderly couple meets through a glass partition at a convalescent hospital in Muan, southwestern South Korea, on March 8, 2021, after the facility permitted non-contact visits. (Yonhap)
A convalescent hospital in Seongnam, south of Seoul, said it will receive applications for visits by family members after completing the ongoing coronavirus vaccinations of its patients.
In Busan, Daejeon and elsewhere in the country, many hospitals and nursing homes only allowed non-contact meetings as they have not been given any guidelines on in-person visits.
A large number of such long-term care facilities are also determined to allow non-contact visits alone to fundamentally eliminate any possibility of person-to-person infections.
“We’ll decide on whether to allow face-to-face meetings after watching the circumstances at other facilities more carefully,” said an official at a nursing home in Seoul’s Yangcheon Ward.
(Yonhap)
