By Lucy Ashton
We are pleased to let you know in line with restrictions easing and the announcement from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon for all local authority areas to move down to level three on Monday 26 April 2021, every patient in Scotland (where possible) will be able to have at least one visitor to enable family support while they are in hospital.
The Scottish Government has published new guidance to support the implementation of the extension to visiting arrangements, which can be found here.
We welcome support from family and friends in hospital; we know that this is a vital support to patients, not least with nutrition, healing, recovery and overall quality of care. We also need to make sure our patients, families and staff are as safe as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic, so visiting needs to continue to be carefully managed at this time.
If you would like to visit someone in hospital:
- From Monday 26 April, every patient (where possible) in hospital will be able to have one family or friend visit.
- There may be some circumstances where it is not safe for a patient to have a visitor; if this is the case, we will tell you why and keep it under review where possible.
- Only one family member or friend will be identified by the patient or their guardian, carer or power of attorney can visit at present. If this is you, please contact the ward to arrange a visit in advance, so we can be sure that our wards and hospital sites do not become overcrowded and allow everyone to follow the physical distancing rules. A list of telephone numbers can be found for all wards and departments on the NHSGGC website link here.
- To help keep everyone safe, we strongly recommend that all visitors have a Voluntary Lateral Flow Test prior to visiting and then undertaken twice per week for as long as you are the named visitor. This is optional. This will be available to everyone in Scotland from 26 April. Information on how to order Lateral Flow Tests is on the Scottish Government’s website or tests can be collected from COVID testing centres in the afternoon or early evening. If you do not wish to have a test or are not able to test this will not be an obstacle to a visit.
- If you wish to be tested, over the weekend in preparation for visiting on Monday 26 April, information on the asymptomatic test facilities across NHSGGC can be found here.
- When visiting the hospital please do not bring additional family and friends with you unless you are a carer accompanying a family member or a parent accompanying a child.
When visiting the hospital, you must:
- Wash their hands or use hand sanitiser when entering and leaving clinical areas
- Wear a face covering/mask at all times, unless you are exempt for this
- Respect social distancing measures at all times
- Take the stairs if possible to avoid congregating in left lobbies and communal areas
- Contact the ward to discuss arrangements before visiting
You MUST NOT attend if you are unwell, if you are a household contact or have been otherwise informed that they are a close contact of a confirmed case of COVID-19 and have been advised to self-isolate or have to self-isolate for another reason (e.g. travel from a country requiring quarantine).
Security
Security arrangements are in place at all our hospitals to ensure entry is restricted to people with authorisation for a visit only and to assist us to adhere to the guidelines. When you arrive at a hospital site, please explain to security staff that you are there to visit someone, and that it has been arranged with the ward in advance.
Further information about the new visiting arrangements is available here (these will be updated on 26 April).
Thank you so much for your cooperation. We look forward to welcoming family members and friends back into hospitals to support patients from 26 April.
Virtual Visiting Service
If you cannot visit in person, please use technology such as social media and phone calls to stay in touch. If the person you want to speak to does not have access to their own phone or tablet, please access our Person Centred Virtual Visiting service. All wards have iPads specially set up to enable ‘virtual visits’ (video call) allowing patients to see and talk to the people who matter to them using FaceTime, Skype or Zoom.