Because of this, Cancer Council Victoria, Breast Cancer Network Australia and Canteen say more families are being forced to care for dying relatives at home due to fear of restrictive visitor policies and concern COVID-19 screening requirements for palliative care patients could mean loved ones may die alone in hospital.
Current guidelines in Victoria allow for under 16s to visit patients if they are providing end-of-life support for a patient, or are the child, grandchild or sibling of a patient.
However, different rules are being implemented in healthcare settings.
Bec Batten lost her father on June 6 at Echuca hospital after a long battle with prostate cancer.
She told the Riv because her brother’s baby — her dad’s grandson — wasn’t allowed in the hospital, the family lost precious time with their father before he died.
“The fact my brother's baby wasn’t able to accompany them into the hospital meant my brother and his wife had to swap care of him to see Dad,” she said.
“My brother took his son outside so his wife could be in the room for a minute and in those precious few minutes he was out of the room, my dad took his final breaths.
“If only compassion and common sense had have been able to be implemented, we could have all been in the room when he passed.
“After Dad passed, they happily allowed us all in the room together (minus the baby and a friend who came to watch him) along with close family friends and this is why I couldn’t understand the COVID rules as to why for these last moments we couldn’t have all been in the room together.”
While Bec said she understood Echuca Regional Health had protocols in place, she said the "lack of consistency and compassion regarding COVID-19 rules" was frustrating.
“My dad was admitted as an end-stage palliative patient three days before he passed at the Echuca hospital,” she said.
“Some of the nurses were amazing and compassionate and some were black and white in their decisions.
“The hard part is that there is a grey area when it comes to visiting terminally ill patients.
“We understand these are trying times and why they place restrictions on visitors, but when a patient is an end-stage patient, I believe the rules need to be re-evaluated.”
Cancer Council Victoria head of strategy and support Danielle Spence said more compassion was needed for those nearing end-of-life.
“We absolutely understand the need to limit visitors to protect the health and safety of patients and staff, but it’s troubling that policies adopted by individual healthcare services are more restrictive than the guidelines recommended by Victoria’s Chief Health Officer,” Ms Spence said.
Breast Cancer Network Australia chief executive Kirsten Pilatti and Canteen chief executive Peter Orchard said the inconsistent approach to visitor restrictions was causing confusion and distress, adding to the anxiety families were already facing during this time.
“It’s heartbreaking to hear families being denied the opportunity to focus on the moments that matter, while they cope with providing direct care, or families separated from their loved ones who feel a sense of helplessness and despair that they cannot support them or say their goodbyes in the way they had planned,” Ms Pilatti said.
“Having a parent die of cancer is one of the hardest things a person can experience,” Mr Orchard said.
The cancer organisations are calling for healthcare services to overturn blanket bans on young people visiting family members who are unwell, increase compassion to families going through an already difficult situation and increased funding to ensure people can access timely and adequate palliative care community services to enable them to safely care for loved ones at home.
ERH, which said it was following and implementing all DHHS guidelines for health services during COVID-19, did not want to comment.
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