New visiting arrangements now in place

November 18, 2021

From today (17 November) we are easing our visiting restrictions to allow inpatients in amber areas to receive one visitor for up to 30 minutes per day. Patients can nominate two individuals who can visit for the duration of their stay, ideally from the same household. Visitors must use hand sanitiser and wear a face mask on entry. They must also show evidence of a negative lateral flow test result taken that same day to be checked on entrance to the building. All visits must be booked in advance by telephoning the ward to allow wards to limit the number of visitors on a ward / bay at any one time. All visitors must be free of COVID-19 symptoms, and must not attend if they are a household contact of a COVID-19 positive case. We regret we are unable to allow visits by children (under 16 years) or those who are immunocompromised.

For more information see the visiting information here.

The current visiting arrangements for paediatrics, maternity and ICU remain in place. Our usual exemptions apply for inpatient children, those at end of life and people who lack mental capacity.

Red and green areas, where visiting is currently not allowed, should ensure they have robust systems in place to support communication between patients and their loved ones.

We will review visiting arrangements weekly based on a risk assessment taking into account COVID-19 case rates in the community and numbers of COVID-19 cases in our hospitals.