Visiting restrictions to stay in place at Ipswich Hospital as Covid-19 cases "still high"
Limits have been in place since late March
Visiting restrictions are to remain in place at Ipswich Hospital for now as Covid-19 case rates in the region remain high.
Most ward visiting has been restricted since March 23 due to a surge in cases. East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, says the situation remains 'under review'.
The rules also apply for patients in Felixstowe Hospital, Aldeburgh Hospital and Bluebird Lodge in Ipswich.
Trust Chief Executive Nick Hulme said:
“Quite rightly, people are asking me why we still have visiting restrictions in place when other hospitals do not,”
“But the truth is the situation from one Trust to another, even if they are in the same county, is never the same. Community infection rates have come down in other areas quicker than they have in north Essex and east Suffolk, and therefore inpatient numbers in those areas have come down too.
“Due to the number of COVID-19 cases and contacts in our hospitals, as well as community prevalence of the virus, most of our visiting restrictions must remain in place for now
“Our priority, as always, is to keep everyone in our hospitals as safe as possible, but we are committed to reinstating more open ward visiting as soon as we can.”
Chief Nurse and Director of Infection Prevention Giles Thorpe said:
“We are still seeing high rates of COVID-19 and people are still being admitted with the virus too, so we must continue to do all we can to stop transmission in our hospitals.
“That is why we still have visiting restrictions in place. We do appreciate and understand how difficult it is for our patients and the people who care about them, but we cannot ignore the number of patients we have with the virus and how infectious this latest variant is."
The current rules mean if someone has been in hospital for seven days or more they may have one visitor for one hour a day.
There are no restrictions on carers, those visiting people getting end of life care or those seeing people with dementia or a learning disability.
Parents of children in hospital are allowed to visit and mothers giving birth are permitted one birthing partner.