RUH Bath reinstates limited visiting as coronavirus pressures ease
Limited visiting has been reinstated from Monday 12 April at the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust as coronavirus pressures ease.
Most visiting was suspended at the end of November 2020 in line with government advice to help protect patients and slow the spread of the virus.
RUH Chief Executive Cara Charles-Barks said: “This is excellent news and will come as a welcome relief to patients and their families. The health, safety and wellbeing of our patients, communities, individuals and teams remain our absolute priority, and we are really pleased to be able to relax our regulations in a managed and responsible way.”
The new visiting arrangements allow each patient to have one visitor a day for the maximum of one hour. In most cases, these visitors will be limited to someone from the patient’s household or social bubble.
Exceptions to the general one visitor only rule include the Children’s Ward and patients nearing the end of life.
All visitors must wear a face covering at all times and will be expected to follow social distancing measures.
Cara Charles-Barks said: “We understand how difficult it has been for many people to have been unable to visit, or restricted in visiting, their loved ones and friends over the past four months. It was important then to help to keep our patients and staff safe – and it’s important now that we keep these new visiting arrangements under review as we all start, hopefully, to return to some sort of normality of life.”