The health, safety and wellbeing of our patients, their families, our staff and volunteers remain our absolute priority, and like all health organisations, we will continue to do all we can to protect patients, visitors, staff, and volunteers as we live alongside Coronavirus.
We are enabling as many visits to the hospice as possible, recognising the importance of maintaining connections with family and friends. However, we need to keep our staff, volunteers and patients safe, and our visiting policy reflects the current UK government advice for health and care services to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Before visiting, visitors have no requirement to take a Lateral Flow Device (LFD) test. However, hospice staff will ask you to confirm that you have no symptoms of COVID-19 before you enter the Inpatient Unit.
Please help us keep the hospice a safe environment and help to avoid catching or spreading germs. You can help to stop the spread of any germs by:
Download and read our full Visiting Policy.
Staff and volunteers caring for patients will continue to self-administer LFD tests twice a week under government advice to health and social care. If they become positive, they will isolate for a minimum of 5 days if negative on LFD testing on both days 5 and 6 (24 hours apart). They will refrain from working for up to 10 days or until their test is negative. A risk assessment will also be considered, and for the most vulnerable patients, we will do all we can to not expose them to anyone who may have been recently exposed to COVID-19.
Routine patient testing is also being undertaken to protect everyone accessing the Inpatient Unit, including staff, volunteers, and patients. For patients, a test will be undertaken on the first day of admission, and additional tests will be conducted if they develop symptoms. These tests will guide their medical assessment and treatment plan.
Our counselling, family and bereavement support services, as well as our support wellbeing services for patients, continue to be available. Upon referral, a member of the team will discuss the latest COVID-19 requirements with you.
Please contact the hospice reception desk to discuss any other queries on 01226 244 244.
