Hospital visitor restrictions lifted for most areas of PEH

Falling Bailiwick Covid case numbers and a reduction in staff absences has enabled Health & Social Care to remove most of the restrictions on visitors to the hospital.

Since 15 March, patients have been allowed only one visit by one person each visiting session, with just a few exceptions. Patients will now no longer be limited to one visitor on the majority of wards. The exception to this will be if circumstances on a particular ward require there to be temporary restrictions in place. Corbiere and Brehon wards are not currently allowing visits due to Covid outbreaks on these wards.

If it is possible, based on the circumstances, anyone attending the emergency department is also asked to take a lateral flow test before attending.

Hospital director Dr Peter Rabey, pictured, said: ‘We know how difficult any restrictions on visitors to patients in hospital can be and would only ever look to keep such measures in place for as long as they were deemed essential to protect our services.

‘We currently have fewer Covid cases in the PEH and the community, and less staff off as a result of the infection, and so are very pleased to be able to lift these measures across the majority of wards.

‘We will continue to closely monitor the situation on a ward-by-ward basis.’

There had been concerns raised that the visiting policy was not appropriate for family members wishing to visit patients with a terminal diagnosis.

But Dr Rabey said that there had always been a process in place to allow for more visitors if a patient was on end-of-life care and the hospital would do what it could to support people in such circumstances.