Published on: 25 March 2020
Whilst we understand that visitors are important to people whilst they are in hospital, we also have to think about everyone’s safety during this pandemic. COVID-19 is highly infectious and we have had to change how we carry out visiting times to limit the possibility of infection. We have done this in line with national guidance.
We are limiting visiting times and the number of people who can visit. We need people to think about other ways of keeping in touch, like phone calls and texting.
We are restricting visiting to one person for one hour per day at designated visiting times.
Visitors must be immediate family members or carers and must sit at least 2 metres away from the person they are visiting and from anyone else they meet on the ward.
Visitors must not come to any health and care settings if they are:
• unwell, especially if they have a high temperature or a new, persistent cough
• vulnerable as a result of their medication, a chronic illness or they are over 70 years of age.
Visitors should be limited to one per patient unless:
• the patient is receiving end-of-life care
• the visitor needs to be accompanied – accompanying visitors should not stay in patient, ward or communal areas.
No children under 12 should be visiting without the ward sister or charge nurse’s prior permission.
All visiting is at the discretion of the ward manager and the consultant psychiatrist.
We ask for the public’s help in respecting these rules and remind visitors that we have a zero tolerance approach to abuse towards our staff.
