Visiting restrictions further relaxed at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust
Rules were brought into force amid high Covid cases across Cornwall
The Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust has further relaxed restrictions for visitors.
Visiting was suspended at sites including Treliske in March, due to a high number of Covid cases.
Rules were then eased at the end of April and bosses have now confirmed that they have relaxed those further.
As of Friday 10th June, all patients are allowed a maximum of two visitors at a time, except for admitting areas where patients can have one visitor/carer with them.
Visitors must not visit if they have been:
- Experiencing any of the symptoms associated with possible COVID-19
- Feeling unwell
- Visitors must use the appropriate hand hygiene facilities before and after visiting
- Appropriate PPE, specifically a surgical facemask, should be worn in areas where staff are required to wear a mask
- Prior to visiting visitors will be expected to use the public toilet facilities within the hospital as these will not be available on the ward
- Visiting is to be between 14:00 and 20:00. Outside of these hours it is to be at the discretion of the Ward Leader / Unit Manager.
Exceptional circumstances
Patients at End of Life:
The patient is not required to be on end of life care plan (blue book) to allow these circumstances to be applied.
There may be many situations where it is suspected the patient may be dying, and therefore they are able to have the end of life visiting plan enacted. The blue book should not be commenced solely to facilitate visiting, nor should visiting be restricted because the blue book is not in place.
Patients who are at the end of their life may have increased visiting with no restriction on the number of visitors or length of time of visit at the discretion of the Ward Leader / Unit Manager.
Out-patients:
Patients attending for an adult out-patient appointment can be accompanied by 1 person
Emergency Department:
Can be accompanied by 1 person (Both adults and Children). In exceptional circumstances the Unit Manager can approve more.
Critical Care
There will be a maximum of 2 nominated visitors only for regular visiting;
Exceptional circumstances for end of life, 4 visitors allowed ideally in pairs – for review by Clinical Matron / Head of Nursing / Care Group Senior Team;
Each visit will be a maximum of 1 hour, once a day, ideally pre-booked and documented on the visitor logs present at the north and south side;
There is a limit to the number of visitors at any one time – 1 set of visitors each for the 6-bedder and 4-bedder. 2 sets of visitors permitted on the north side in view of cubicles;
Visitors are not to use the previous visiting room / red staff room;
All visits will be logged on the patients Carevue.
All patients on critical care are either receiving life-sustaining treatments or are recovering from a serious illness or high-risk major surgery. They therefore all meet the criteria for ‘exceptional circumstances,’ in terms of receiving visitors outside of the End-of-Life setting. All patients will be reviewed daily and if exceptional circumstances for visiting apply the decision will be documented on the whiteboard and the decision communicated to the family.
You can find all the visitor restrictions and information for each department here.