Our visiting arrangements are changing from Monday 8 January following a comprehensive review in which we spoke to patients, families, carers, visitors, staff, and our communities.
The change is part of a wider campaign, focusing on patient experience, which we launched earlier this year called ‘Your care, your way: Carol’s Campaign’.
The new arrangements will provide greater flexibility for visitors and carers to visit patients when they need them the most.
Melanie Sharp, Deputy Chief Nurse, said: “We understand how important it is for our patients to receive visits from family and friends when in hospital. It can be a lonely and worrying time if you’re facing a lengthy stay in an unfamiliar place. Visits from those you love can boost your mood and keep you focused on getting better and returning home. We also know families are more reassured when they can see their loved ones in person.
“We know visiting can enhance recovery and wellbeing for our patients. However, we also need to balance that ensuring patients are able to rest, feel safe and have their privacy and dignity maintained.”
The main changes we are implementing include:
- Making visiting available between 11am and 8pm with some exceptions. The exception to this is our intensive care and high dependency areas where visiting will be 1pm to 4pm and 6pm to 9pm daily and areas where patients will not stay overnight ie Same Day Emergency Care Units.
- Introducing Care Partners – this is someone who supports or cares, unpaid, for a friend or family member. They will have open access to visit when required by the patient.
- Birth partners may have open access to enhance family bonding.
- Parents or guardians will continue to have 24 hour access to our children’s wards.
Melanie said: “As well as listening to local feedback, we have also taken on board national guidance to develop this new visiting framework. Our approach is very much to allow patients access to those people who support them, when they need them the most.
“I want to thank everyone who participated in this review as it will hopefully not only improve the experience of coming into hospital for our patients, but also their nearest and dearest. We will be reviewing the changes in April 2024.”
For further information about the full visiting arrangement changes please see our visiting pages on our website at: https://nlg.mixd.co.uk/patients/visitors/current-visiting/