Hospital visiting - Updated 23/12/20

New visiting arrangements

Updated 23/12/20

To ensure patient, staff and visitor safety, visiting arrangements have changed due to recent developments during the COVID-19 outbreak. This is in response to communication from Scottish Government on Saturday 19 December advising of the potential for the new COVID-19 variant to spread more easily and the plan for all local authorities within NHSGGC alongside other areas in Scotland to move to Tier 4 on Saturday 26 December.

Visiting in our hospitals is as follows:

Wednesday 23 December – Thursday 24 December

Inverclyde Royal Hospital: One Designated Visitor and Essential Visits

All Other Hospitals: Essential Visits Only

Friday 25 December, only

Inverclyde Royal Hospital: One Designated Visitor and Essential Visits

All Other Hospitals: Essential Visits Only

Saturday 26 December until further notice

All Hospitals: Essential Visits Only

Whilst the Scottish Government have advised there will be no changes to existing visiting guidance for people in hospital on Christmas Day, we will where it is safe to do so apply flexibility and compassion to ensure that no one is isolated if this can be avoided. 

Examples of essential visits include but are not limited to: 

• A birth partner supporting a woman during hospital visits 
• For a person receiving end-of-life care – we expect this to be defined as flexibly and compassionately as possible, to support patients at the end of life spending meaningful time with their loved ones in their final days and weeks 
• To support someone with a mental health issue such as dementia, a learning disability or autism where not being present would cause the patient to be distressed 
• To accompany a child in hospital

The above examples can include any other situations where clinical staff assess that it is essential to involve family or carers for ethical or patient safety reasons. 

All arrangements MUST be made through the nurse in charge of the ward before visiting.

What do I need to know before visiting?

• Children MUST NOT visit
• All visitors MUST wash their hands or use hand sanitiser when entering and leaving clinical areas
• Face covering MUST be worn at all times
• You MUST NOT visit before contacting the ward to discuss arrangements
• You MUST NOT attend if they 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). 
• At your first visit to the hospital, you will be given a letter. You will need to bring this letter with you for every visit. Security staff will ask you to show this to them at the hospital entrance. The letter explains that you are an essential/designated visitor and have permission to access the hospital.
• On your arrival at the ward and every time you visit the ward, staff will check that you are well and ask you some questions about your health to make sure it is safe for you to visit. They will ask you the following questions:
  • Are you feeling unwell?
  • Do you have new/continuous cough?
  • Have you had any sickness or diarrhoea within the last 48 hours?
  • Have you noticed a change in your temperature?
  • Have you noticed a change in your normal sense of taste or smell?
  • Are you self-isolating because you have been in contact with anyone suspected as having, or has tested positive for COVID-19, in the past 14 days.

You will not be allowed to visit if you do not pass this safety check.

The ward staff will ask all visitors to provide contact details. This is normal in the current circumstances to assist Public Health, Test and Protect colleagues should there be a need to contact you. Your contact information will be used for Trace and Protect purposes only and will be securely destroyed once the information is no longer required.

It is essential you do not visit if you have a persistent cough, loss of taste or smell, flu like symptoms or fever. 

Guidance on travel and transport

Where possible it is advised by the Scottish Government for travel to or from areas where higher numbers of people with COVID to be restricted. There are a number of exceptions to this, which allows:

· People to travel to visit a person receiving treatment in a hospital, staying in a hospice or care home, or to accompany a person to a medical appointment. Full guidance on travelling safely can be found here.

Alternative Arrangements

Virtual Visiting

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 contact [email protected] to 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. Further information about this service is available here.

Give & Go Service

If you cannot visit your loved one in hospital, you can still drop off small packages of essential personal items for them, using the Give & Go service which is available at a few of our hospitals. For more details, see our Give & Go page.

What next?

When guided by the Scottish Government, these restrictions will be revised and altered depending on the outbreak status of the virus and any outbreak within the hospital and local community.

Thank you for your understanding.