However, not all SCHs could adopt such rules. It should be remembered that some homes are
located in buildings that cannot be divided into separate parts, and such separation may be impossible
also because of the activity profile of the home.
It should be noted that with the passage of time, the availability of protection and disinfection
measures increased, the demand reporting system was improved, voivodeship governors transferred
funds to SCHs from the Material Reserves Agency, and some funds were received also from private
donors. Subsequent information from individual social care homes showed the supplies of those
products were sufficient.
Restrictions on the rights of residents
For most residents, the most severe restrictions of their rights were the impossibility to receive
visits by relatives, and the prohibition to leave the nursing home area. Those restrictions were based on
the already mentioned ministerial recommendations, which individual voivodeship governors included
in their orders for the homes. The voivodeship governors were authorized to issue orders binding on:
all government administration bodies operating within the voivodeship, on state legal persons, local
government bodies and legal persons established by them, as well as entities established by them but
having no legal personality. The orders were issued in the form of administrative decisions and were
implemented immediately. The voivodeship governors immediately notified the competent minister
about the issuance of such orders329. The voivodeship governors forwarded the recommendations e.g. of
the Chief Sanitary Inspector and the Minister of Health according to the same procedure.
However, in some cases, the homes’ managers misinterpreted the orders, particularly at the
beginning of the pandemic. For example, in the SCH in Skarżysko-Kamienna residents were asked not
to leave their rooms330. In some other institutions, the forms of spending time together by residents were
significantly limited. Group activities such as occupational therapy or physical rehabilitation were
suspended, and meals were delivered to individual rooms331. This, to a large extent, limited social
interactions between the residents although such interactions are extremely important in the life of every
human being.
329
Based on Article 11(h) of the Act of 2 March 2020 on special solutions related to the prevention, counteracting
and combating COVID-19, other infectious diseases and crisis situations caused by them (consolidated text:
Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1842; hereinafter: the special act on covid). Until 5 September 2020, the issues were
regulated by Article 11, which pursuant to Article 36(1) of the special act on covid expired 180 days after its entry
into force.
330
Letter of 2 April 2020.
331
SCH for veterans in Warsaw.
128
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