Following the recent Government announcement, mandatory social distancing and mask wearing will come to an end as part of daily life from Monday 19th July.
However, Public Health England’s infection prevention and control (IPC) guidelines are set to remain in place for all patients, staff and visitors in a healthcare setting.
This is because we are still seeing rising cases of Covid-19 in our communities and in admission to our hospitals. We can’t afford to become complacent in terms of the rigorous processes we follow to keep our patients, staff and visitors safe.
With that in mind, we want to be really clear that despite any changes coming into force from next Monday outside of a hospital setting, current IPC guidance remains in place in hospitals, GP and other primary care practices in Lancashire and South Cumbria, and will not change at this time.
This means that all patients, visitors and staff must wear a surgical face mask (and any other PPE that a clinical area recommends), observe strict 2 metre social distancing principles and adhere to strict hand hygiene practices.
Surgical face masks are available free from our reception area, where hand sanitising stations are also located.
If you are unable to wear a mask due to medical reasons, please consider if your visit is absolutely necessary. If it is, please inform one of our colleagues upon arrival at the hospital.
You will be asked to wear a lanyard which displays the fact that you are exempt. This will avoid you being challenged by our colleagues in the hospital.
Adult inpatient visiting remains suspended (since 16th June) until further notice and the full guidance, including exemptions, is available here.
We will continue offering patients/relatives the option of Facetime (or alternative) to speak directly with their loved ones. This can be organised directly with the ward.
Where asked those attending our hospitals must also demonstrate a negative lateral flow test on arrival to the ward/unit, to ensure any risks associated with not having symptoms, are managed.
Lateral flow tests are available to order online from the Government website here and are also free from most pharmacies.
- Watch an appeal by our Doctor Munavvar where he implores everyone to get both vaccinations here.
- You can see more about our Covid IPC measures and hear patients in our hospital on this ITN item here.
We would like to thank our community for their support throughout the pandemic and ask you to continue to help us keep everyone as safe as possible.
