THE top boss at Hereford County Hospital says staff have been facing abuse from patients after being asked to wear face coverings.

While restrictions in England have been eased so masks are no longer a legal requirement in most public places, they should still be worn in healthcare settings.

But in a report for April's board meeting, Wye Valley NHS Trust chief executive Glen Burley said some patients were refusing and then abusing staff.

He said some patients did have clinical exemptions to masks, which the trust, which runs Hereford County Hospital, said recognises and responds to with other infection prevention control (IPC) measures.

But he said: "Over recent weeks many of our staff have found themselves in the situation where they have asked patients to comply with mask wearing but have faced refusal and abuse as a consequence.

"I would like to thank our staff for persevering with this and want to reiterate mine, and the organisation’s support for them in implementing our guidelines.

"I have seen some posts on social media which suggest that as mask wearing is no longer the law, we have no right to seek to implement this within our services.

"We have always implemented IPC rules and guidelines."

He said evidence was available to back up that mask-wearing reduces the chances of spreading Covid, and the trust had a duty to keep people safe.

"For example, patients who go to operating theatre are quite happy to wear a surgical gown without citing ‘evidence’ on social media or the need for a gown wearing law," Mr Burley, chief executive of the trust which also runs community hospitals, said.

"These are just simple, evidence based measures which aim to keep everyone as safe as possible. We have a clear responsibility to do this under health and safety law.

"It has also been suggested that under these circumstances we should not be refusing to treat people.

"We will always treat people for life threatening conditions promptly but in other circumstances, if the individual refuses to be treated according to our reasonable protocols then it is they who are refusing treatment."