Coronavirus and hospitals in North Yorkshire
Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust runs Harrogate District Hospital.
It said: “For the foreseeable future, we are asking the public to limit visiting and to consider other ways of keeping in touch, like phone calls.”
Visitors must be immediate family members or carers. They should not visit any health and care settings, and this applies to all inpatient, diagnostic and outpatient areas, 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, and this applies to inpatient and outpatient settings
• they are a partner and birthing partner accompanying a woman in labour.
No children under 12 should be visiting without the ward sister or charge nurse’s prior permission.
Visiting is restricted to one hour per day at designated visiting times: 6-7pm.
Slightly different rules apply to paediatrics and neonates – two visitors are allowed and this may include a child under 12.
In addition, Robert Harrison, chief operating officer at the trust, explained: “In line with well-established plans for situations like this, every hospital in England has now been asked to suspend all non-urgent elective operations from 15 April for at least three months, with some procedures likely to be rescheduled before then so we can train our staff and adapt certain areas.
“Urgent and emergency cases and cancer treatments will be carrying on as normal, but we know many people waiting for treatment will be disappointed or worried, and we will be contacting everyone affected as soon as possible.”
The hospital is also asking patients who have a scheduled appointment in the coming weeks to telephone in and say in advance if they are in self-isolation or household-isolation.
This should be done via the contact telephone number on their appointment letter.
The aim of this request is to be able to offer an alternative form of appointment wherever possible. This could be, for example, a telephone appointment.
Robert Harrison said: “Even when self-isolating or household-isolating, patients may still require care and treatment for other conditions, and we aim to ensure that continues as best as possible in the circumstances. Alternatively, if it is essential that a patient must be seen face to face, clinicians will make that decision and can prepare with the appropriate personal protective equipment.
“More generally, it’s really important to remember that if someone is in isolation, that they stick to it. We need help from members of the public to enable us to focus on providing care for our sickest patients and ensuring staff remain well enough to be at work. Please, do not come to hospital or otherwise break your isolation if you have coronavirus symptoms, don’t yet have the all clear or have not completed the full period of isolation required.”
We really need people with appointments to tell us in advance, by telephone, if they are in isolation. We can support them based on that information and in many cases we can be flexible with the types of appointment we can offer. We will discuss this with each patient, based on their individual needs.
York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust runs York Hospital, Scarborough Hospital, Bridlington Hospital, Malton Hospital, The New Selby War Memorial Hospital, St Monica’s Hospital Easingwold, White Cross Rehabilitation Hospital and St Helens Rehabilitation Hospital.
The trust has restricted routine visiting to all its hospital sites to ensure the safety of patients and staff.
Heather McNair, Chief Nurse the trust, said: “It is important that we reduce the number of people coming into our hospitals as we take steps to minimise the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19), particularly for our patients who may be more vulnerable to infection.
“The decision to restrict visitors is always difficult and only made after careful consideration. However, the safety of our patients and staff must be our top priority. While we recognise the importance of having people visit when you are in hospital, we need to introduce these measures in order to protect our patients, as well as keeping our staff safe, well and able to come into work.
“As part of the restrictions, most patients will only be allowed one visitor at a time, between either 3-4pm or 7-8pm, and they must remain in the hospital room for the duration of the visit.
“Anyone with symptoms of coronavirus, a cold, flu or norovirus should not visit at all. All visitors will be asked to use alcohol gel on entry and exit to the hospital site, as well as on entry and exit to the ward area. After visiting ends we are asking visitors to leave the hospital straight away, which will help us minimise the risk of infection.”
Other measures introduced include:
- Anyone under the age of 16 will be restricted from visiting, expect in exceptional circumstances.
- Visitors to childrens’ wards will be for parents, guardians or carers only.
- Visitors to our maternity wards will be restricted to one birth partner only for all appointments, including scans, the birth itself and postnatal visiting.
- For patients attending emergency departments, they should be accompanied by one person only.
- For patients coming for day case chemotherapy the trust is asking for no visitors, given the whole patient group are high risk.
- Visitors will not be allowed in rooms of patients with pending or positive COVID-19 tests, except under extreme circumstances. There will be a requirement to wear full personal protective equipment in these circumstances, which staff will explain.
- Visiting will be allowed in exceptional circumstances, for example if the patient is receiving end-of-life care.
Heather added: “As soon as it possible to safely relax the visiting restrictions we will do so. In the meantime visitors can still keep in touch with loved ones by considering other ways of having contact, such as video and phone calls.”
South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust runs the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, The James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough and community services in Hambleton and Richmondshire, Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland including The Friary Community Hospital in Richmond.
The trust is asking the public to limit visits to essential visits only, meaning:
- Visitors must be immediate family or carers
- One visitor per adult patient
- Visitors are asked to limit visits to one hour per day
- A partner and birthing partner per woman in labour
- Two visitors per child patient (this may include a child under 12)
- No children under 12 on adult wards without prior agreement of the ward manager or nurse in charge.
Discretion will be applied on compassionate grounds by the nurse/midwife in charge.
As of Thursday 19 March, outpatient appointments are currently continuing as normal, unless patients are contacted and advised otherwise. Adult patients attending outpatient appointments are asked to please be mindful to either attend alone or bring one person to accompany them where possible.
People should stay at home if they have a high temperature – (they feel hot to touch their your chest or back) or a new, continuous cough.
Visitors to trust hospitals are asked:
- Wash your hands with soap and water, or use the hand gel provided, when arriving and leaving a ward.
- Use the chairs provided in the wards and do not sit on patient beds.
- Please do not bring flowers onto the wards.
- Refrain from smoking in hospitals or in the hospital grounds.
Airedale NHS Foundation Trust provides services from its main hospital site, Airedale Hospital, and at other locations across the community – such as Castleberg Hospital, near Settle, Coronation Hospital in Ilkley and Skipton Hospital.
Rob Aitchison, Chief Operating Officer, said: “As the Chief Medical Officer has stated, NHS services are likely to come under intense pressure as the coronavirus spreads, and we need to ensure that we have as many beds available as possible when the number of infections peaks. We also need to free up our staff now to undertake extra training to care for patients with severe respiratory problems.
“We have therefore decided to suspend all non-urgent elective operations from now for at least three months. Urgent and emergency cases and cancer treatments will be carrying on as normal.
“We know many people waiting for treatment will be disappointed or worried, and we will be contacting everyone affected.
“This is ahead of the national guidance of 15 April, but we need to prepare ourselves now, to ensure we can give the best possible care to patients as demand intensifies.”
Visiting restrictions include one visitor per bed on wards including maternity, with no children under 12; one visitor and/or birthing partner in the labour suite (no children) and one parent or care-giver can be resident overnight on the children’s ward, while two parents/care-givers can visit during the day.
