Herefordshire hospitals suspend visiting due to Covid

Wye Valley NHS Trust, which runs Hereford County Hospital and the community hospitals in Bromyard, Leominster and Ross-on-Wye, said visitors would no longer be allowed on most wards.

With a few exceptions, the tighter visiting restrictions came into force today (Wednesday) to help "protect patients by reducing the risk of someone bringing Covid onto the wards", a spokesperson said.

It was due to “rising number of Covid-19 cases in the county”.

Chief nursing officer Lucy Flanagan said: “This has been a difficult decision to make as we know the benefits visitors can make to the recovery of our patients, but with the increased spread of the virus in the community and cases on our wards, we’ve decided to temporarily suspend visiting on safety grounds with a few exceptions.”

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Exemptions include compassionate grounds, stroke patients and out-patient areas.

There will also be no changes visiting restrictions on the children’s ward, special care baby unit and in maternity.

It comes as the number of patients with Covid being treated at hospital in Herefordshire hit an eight-month high.

NHS England data showed 26 people were being cared for in hospital by the Wye Valley NHS Trust, which runs Hereford County Hospital, on Tuesday, October 26. These are the most recently-published figures, with an update expected tomorrow (Thursday).

That was three more as on the same day the previous week (October 19).

The number of patients in the week to Tuesday peaked at 27 on October 20 and 22. This was the highest number at the trust on a single day since February 10.

In total, Herefordshire reported 836 coronavirus cases in the seven days to October 27, , the latest available. It means the county's infection rate is 431.8 cases per 100,000 people.

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“We want to thank all our patients who have been in hospital in recent months and their families and friends who have supported the visiting restrictions we’ve had in place,” Ms Flanagan added.

“We know this hasn’t always been easy but these restrictions have enabled us to ensure patients are being treated in the safest environment possible.

“Covid has not gone away and this tightening of visiting restrictions is an extra step we need to take to help protect patients and staff with the growing number of cases in the community.

“We appreciate the benefits receiving visitors has on our patients and so we have made certain exceptions. The new arrangements will be under constant review and we will reopen and revert back to limited visiting arrangements across our wards as soon as it is safe to do so.”

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