So we just wanted to give a little bit of an update
on where we are in terms of our response to COVID
and perhaps give a little bit of an explanation of some of the measures that
we have in place. So we have seen a slight increase in
admissions for patients who require hospital
admission for COVID-related illness and so as a
result of that we're in a position where we are
now setting ourselves back up to get prepared for the management
of COVID as part of our winter plan. So we are in a position at the minute where
we're putting our pathways back into place to manage
people who don't have COVID and patients who may have or do have
confirmed COVID to very different channels in the organisation.
So we are at the moment trying to reduce the footfall into the organisation
and we have also just taken the view that we are about to
restrict our visiting again. I do really understand how important it
is for people to be able to see their loved ones when they're in hospital.
It's a really difficult time for families
and we were just about to consider lifting some of the restrictions that we have
had in place but unfortunately as a result of the
changes in the COVID response and the presence of COVID both in the
community and therefore in the hospital from an
infection control patient and staff safety perspective we
have had to keep those restrictions in place.
So what that actually means at the moment is that we can have one
visitor for people under exceptional circumstances.
We will include in that patients who are at the end of life
and we will also extend that to other exceptional circumstances,
which we can agree through the matrons or award managers
with a member of the family when somebody's in hospital.
But we will be restricting visiting just to the absolute essential visiting
possibilities that we can create for those in exceptional circumstances
So if you are attending for an
outpatient appointment we are asking that people come alone to
reduce the footfall and to support us in trying to maintain
social distancing. However what I would like to say is that
we don't want people to come independently if they need a carer or
support to come with them. We're very conscious of the fact that
it's important for people to be able to make that decision
to bring somebody with them if it's absolutely necessary.
What I mean by that is if they're coming to a point where they've got high anxiety
or if you're coming to an appointment and you actually need physical support
from somebody else by all means we want you to come with
that person. But on the whole we're asking that if you are independent and
you're capable of coming on your own to please do so. If you do need to bring
somebody with you if you're dependent on somebody when
you're coming to the hospital please do phone in advance and the
telephone number that you need to ring for the clinic or the appointment
will actually be on your appointment letter and if you just let them know
that somebody is coming with you and the reasons why
we'll be able to accommodate that in a timely and efficient manner. When you do
come to the hospital for any reason other than being an inpatient we do ask
that you follow the same rules and you follow hands-face-space, the same as you would do anywhere else.
So we expect people to wear a face covering when they come through the door.
If you really haven't got one by now one will be provided for you as you come
through the front door of the hospital there's plenty of hand
sanitizer around the building and we do ask you to only come if you've
been invited and also when you do get here to
remember the 2m social distancing rule
we have a limited space within the organisation
and we have eight and a half thousand staff that are all on site at one time
or another so even just adding one extra person for
every patient into the building is a significant number.
We have had people say well one patient visit
and one visitor shouldn't make any difference but it's not just about the
one person or the space that they're going to, it's
how we manage the infrastructure of the organisation that supports visiting so
the lifts for example, we used to be able to fit 12 people in a lift
now we can only have four. The general footfall across a corridor needs to be
limited to maintain 2m and where people congregate usually at
the entrances and in the main corridors on the seventh
floor in particular creates a significant issue in our
inability to manage social distancing when there's lots of people coming and
going through the front door. Our emergency department doors are open
but we are asking that we only have emergencies attend our ED
So if you require emergency care obviously we want you to dial 999 and
attend the ED if you require urgent care please dial
NHS111 and take direction as to the other alternative routes to
seek the advice and support that you need.
This will really help us greatly in being able to respond to both our
emergency response as usual and our COVID response to keep the
whole community safe. So we're working as part of a new normal
and this is a difficult time for everybody
if you are struggling with mental health or if you have any additional anxiety or
concerns there is help available and you can
contact the numbers that are on the screen at the moment for support and
advice and assistance to keep everybody safe both mentally and
physically throughout this pandemic.