Posted on 4th Jun
Hospital leaders across Nottinghamshire are standing together to urge patients and their families to adhere to hospital social distancing and visiting rules.
Since 17th May some coronavirus restrictions have been lifted, however that is not the case in hospital environments.
Hospitals still require everyone to wash their hands regularly, wear a face mask at all times during their visit (if they are exempt, they will then be provided with a visor) and to keep two meters apart at all times. Visiting is also still restricted.
Sherwood Forest Hospitals’ Chief Nurse Julie Hogg explains: “In order to keep our patients and colleagues safe, we are still adhering to a number of restrictions across our hospitals. Covid-19 is extremely transmissible and we know that such diseases can be transmitted quickly in a hospital environment due to the nature of our work, if we are not continuing to adhere to hands, face and space restrictions and reducing our footfall across our hospitals, we could be putting patients at risk.
“We would also like to remind patients and visitors to be kind and courteous to our colleagues, who are only following the rules to help keep people safe. We have unfortunately seen an increase in violence and aggression, both verbal and physical, towards our colleagues due to people being disappointed that restrictions are still in place across our hospitals at Sherwood. We all need to work together during this difficult time to ensure the safety of everyone.”
Visiting restrictions remain in place across Sherwood Forest Hospitals sites – King’s Mill Hospital, Newark Hospital and Mansfield Community Hospital – which means that each inpatient is allowed one designated visitor to visit for one hour per day. This is being managed by individual wards and patients, so families and friends will need to check visiting times with the ward that the patient is staying on.
Michelle Rhodes, chief nurse at Nottingham University Hospitals, added: “We know that it’s important for our patients to see family and friends, however, our visiting restrictions remain in place to prevent the spread of infection and protect our patients, staff and visitors.
“We are doing everything possible to enable safe and supported visiting and are in a position to be able to safely arrange for one person to visit or accompany a patient in a number of circumstances, which can be found on our website – www.nuh.nhs.uk/visiting-arrangements-during-covid-19.
“All visiting at Nottingham University Hospitals must be arranged in advance with the Nurse in Charge or Ward Manager. If visiting can be supported, please remember, if you are showing symptoms of coronavirus you should not visit and please observe #HandsFaceSpace and all local signage and ward rules. If visiting is not able to be supported our staff can assist to arrange phone call and video calls.
“Please note, this is an extremely difficult time for everyone, and we ask that people remember to stay calm and respectful. Our colleagues are being asked to maintain regulations around visiting for everyone’s safety. Abusing our staff for any reason will not be tolerated and anyone doing this will be asked to leave the ward.”
Visiting restrictions for both trusts remain under review at all times.
Both trusts are encouraging visitors, patients and colleagues to help maintain safety by carrying out the community lateral flow testing. Tests can be ordered via the following links:
www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests
www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/asymptomatictesting
