Coronavirus COVID-19 advice

Important information: Visiting the In-Patient Unit

18th October 2022

Visiting on the In-Patient Unit is important to patients and those they care about. We ask all visitors to play their part in keeping patients and employees safe.

Before you visit

If you are visiting a patient please self-declare any respiratory symptoms before being admitted to clinical areas.

We are pausing our restrictions on the number of visitors’ patients can have at a time. Visitors do not need to book in advance, but if more people than can safely be accommodated in a room arrive at the same time, you may be asked to wait. Please note there are limited facilities and space for waiting at the Hospice.

Please let us know if advance if you are bringing children to allow us to assess the safety of the visit.

Individual arrangements will be put in place for Covid-19 positive patients.

Pets are able to visit by prior arrangement.

You must not visit if you have:

Had a positive LFD test (also known as a “lateral flow”) in the last 10 days, or symptoms of COVID-19, or other respiratory infections within the last five days You may be able to visit sooner if a patient is in the last hours of life following a risk assessment. Please contact the IPU Nurse in charge in this instance.

COVID-19 symptoms include:

  • A high temperature or shivering (chills) – a high temperature means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
  • A new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours
  • A loss or change to your sense of smell or taste
  • Shortness of breath
  • Feeling tired or exhausted
  • An aching body
  • A headache
  • A sore throat
  • A blocked or runny nose
  • Loss of appetite
  • Diarrhoea
  • Feeling sick or being sick.

During your visit

You will be required to sanitise your hands and wear a mask provided by the Hospice on entering the Inpatient Unit. Once in the patient’s room, you can remove your mask, but may be asked to put on your mask when a member of the team enters the room. You may be asked to socially distance from members of the team. We may at time ask you to limit the number of visitors in the room when staff are present.

Where tolerable, you will need to have ventilation in the patient’s room, such as a window or door open.

After your visit

You will need to dispose of your mask in the designated bins and sanitise your hands.

We may contact you if we become aware you have been in close contact with someone with COVID-19 during your visit.

Visiting is continually risk assessed in line with national guidance. Although there is no longer a legal requirement to self-isolate, there are times when restrictions may apply as we are a healthcare environment. This means there may be occasions when a visit previously permitted is no longer possible.

We will do our best to keep you up to date with changes as they happen.