Covid visiting restrictions to be eased across North Cumbria NHS sites
Visiting restrictions are easing across North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust as the country learns to live with Covid.
All in-patients will now be able to have up to two visitors for one hour each day across all of the hospital sites.
In order to ensure the safety of staff, patients and visitors infection prevention measures will still be in place, including suspending of visiting in any areas that have a Covid outbreak.
To prevent overcrowding, each bed will be allocated a dedicated time slot for visitors.
This will be managed on each ward and patients will be encouraged to share their time slot with family members where they are able.
Infection prevention measures in place will include:
Suspending visiting in outbreak areas (wards in outbreak will be noted on our website).
Reminding visitors not to attend if they are showing any symptoms of COVID-19 or feeling unwell.
Actively encouraging visitors to wear a mask at all times during their visit
As with arrangements prior to the pandemic, children under 5 are discouraged from attending where possible.
Lateral flow tests will not be required for visitors.
Jill Foster, Chief Nurse said: "During the pandemic, restricted visiting has been difficult for our patients and their families. It is well known that having visitors aids recovery of our patients and greatly improves the overall patient experience so we are doing everything we can to ensure it’s implemented in a safe way.
"Cases in the community have increased which means that we have also seen an increase of cases in our hospitals. Many of our Covid positive patients are incidental, having been identified through our screening process and not the primary reason for admission to hospital."
She added: "Across the Trust, infection prevention measures such as mask wearing and social distancing are in place to minimise the risk of transmission."
The locations where restrictions are being eased can be found here.