North Wales health board ‘urgently working’ to implement new Welsh Government hospital visiting guidance

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board says it will not be able to introduce new hospital visiting guidance for all patients from next week.

It comes after the Welsh Government announced a series of new changes to the visiting guidance to hospitals across Wales.

The guidance, which is effective from 20 July 2020, includes a partner, friend or family member can now accompany you to:

– 12 week pregnancy scans
– Early pregnancy clinics
– Anomaly scans

Yesterday the Welsh Government said: “We want to ensure that people can visit friends and family in hospital as much as possible.

“But, COVID-19 is still spreading in our communities and we need to prevent and control its spread in our healthcare settings. This is to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of patients/service users, staff and visitors.

“We need to restrict the number of visitors in healthcare settings to ensure that we adhere to the social distancing guidance.

“Virtual visiting should continue where possible. There is immense value in cards, phone calls, e-mails, social media as well as video calls.

“We have updated this guidance to assist health boards and trusts in striking a balance between allowing visiting with a purpose, whilst maintain robust infection control measures. The safety of patients, visitors and staff must be paramount.

“The guidance remains that health boards and trusts should not return to “business as usual” in relation to visiting.

“Visiting, with agreement from the ward sister/charge nurse/nurse in charge, can be facilitated as follows; as long as visitors do not have any symptoms of COVID-19 or are recovered from COVID-19 and have not been knowingly exposed to someone with COVID-19 in the past 14 days.”

However Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board confirmed that it will not be able to introduce the measures for all patients from next Monday.

In a statement, the health board said: “The Welsh Government have updated their guidance to NHS Wales regarding visitors coming onto our sites including those accompanying patients to appointments such as scans.

“Before we can implement this guidance, we must ensure that it is as safe as possible for everyone to maintain social distancing.

“We are urgently working on how we will implement this latest guidance safely but regret that we will not be able to do this for all patients as of Monday 20 July.

“We hope to be able to introduce the new arrangements in a phased way and further information will follow.

“If you have an appointment, please contact your midwife or ultrasound department to discuss this.”

The full Welsh Government guidance on updated visiting can be found here.