Over the past few months our teams have been working hard to reduce the impact of Coronavirus and as an organisation, Livewell Southwest has taken additional steps to protect our staff and the people we care for.
As part of those measures, we introduced temporary restrictions around visiting.
The safety and wellbeing of our staff, patients and our visitors remains our number one priority.
Visiting is therefore still restricted on our inpatient wards, however some of our wards are able to accommodate garden visits and visits to designated areas.
Where this is happening, there are strict hygiene and infection measures in place including asking visitors to adhere to social distancing guidelines, hand washing/hand gel facilities, personal protective equipment provisions, limitations around the number of visitors and rigorous cleaning of any furniture used.
We are particularly keen to support visitors for patients who are:
- A patient receiving end of life care
- Visiting those with a learning disability
- Inpatients under the age of 18 years old (one parent/guardian only)
- Exceptions may also be made for relatives collecting patients who have been discharged.
All visits will need to be pre-arranged by calling the ward/unit ahead of visiting and asking to speak to the matron/nurse in charge.
All visits to be scheduled to be with a timeframe which will be agreed by the individual ward and for one visitor per patient. For exceptions to this please discuss with the wards manager.
Visitors to the ward are required to wear a cloth face covering when visiting any part of our hospital and we would appreciate it this could be applied at the entrance to any of our sites
Even under these circumstances you should not visit if you have a new, persistent cough or high temperature (of 37.8 degrees centigrade or higher).
Additionally, if you live with someone who has symptoms you will need to stay at home for 14 days starting from the day the first person in your house developed symptoms and should not visit.
Please make sure you follow hand hygiene procedures by washing your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds and follow any advice given to you by the ward/unit, including wearing a face covering, and if asked personal protective equipment which will be supplied by the ward.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause, but thank you for your understanding and for your assistance in helping us to keep your loved one safe.
