We hope you and all your families are keeping well and healthy at this time.
We continue to be grateful that you are all respecting our policies with regards to visitors at Askham – the support and teamworking with all of you has been wonderful – thank you for making this period as comfortable for us as you have done thus far.
We are aware that in the media there is a fair amount of scaremongering about care homes – we are trying not to over-indulge in this kind of unhelpful content.
We are doing what we can to portray a positive message internally and externally – planning ahead for all eventualities but also taking each day as it comes.
At Askham, we are aware of the potential scenarios that may unfold and we are doing what we can to prevent but also to plan for such circumstances should they arise.
To keep you informed of our situation, we are managing to keep staffing levels broadly where they should be, but we have had a number of staff need to isolate either due to their own health or the health of someone they live with.
Over the last fortnight we have had a fairly stable 10-12 per cent of our workforce off at any given time. This is of course a challenge, but at this level of absence, staff are managing very well.
Some staff have kindly taken on care hours or domestic hours where they previously performed another role. We are now seeing staff return to work (safely) which is reassuring and also helps balance the total staff pool.
Staff on site are being brilliant and doing everything they can to work more hours and pick up shifts to ensure resident needs are met and avoid us having to bring in staff we don’t know well or who may be working in multiple different health settings.
Please bear with us if there are busier times when phone calls aren’t returned as promptly as we all might like.
We continue to keep any policy changes noted on our website so please do keep an eye on this page: www.askhamvillagecommunity.com/covid19.
We will continue to send updates by email as and when the need arises. Thank you for all cooperation and support. Do not hesitate to ring one of us if you have any queries relating to the above or anything else more specific.
Together, we can keep Askham safe.
Aliyyah, Jo, Priscilla and Karen.
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