Every hospital trust in England limiting visitors despite move towards ‘living with Covid’

Patients face limits on visitors in every hospital trust in England, The Telegraph has revealed, with restrictions set to continue even once the country moves to "living with Covid".

It comes as Boris Johnson announces that all Covid regulations including self-isolation will be abolished at the end of February. 

The health service supports keeping some visiting restrictions in place while Covid remains in circulation among the general population, it is understood.

A spokesman said: "The NHS regularly reminds hospitals that visits for patients should continue to go ahead as much as possible and extra measures should already be in place so that this can be done safely."

NHS England encourages trusts to facilitate visits "wherever possible, and to do so in a risk-managed way", but it is up to individual trusts to set their own policies based on UK Health Security Agency guidelines.

Analysis by The Telegraph found that at least 34 hospital trusts across England still have routine visits suspended, with exceptions such as those for patients receiving end-of-life care and people with dementia. All 125 trusts have some form of visiting restriction in place. The most common policy is to have one named visitor per patient for the entirety of a patient's stay, who can only visit for one hour once a day.

Helen Wildbore, the director of the Relatives and Residents Association, said limiting patients to one nominated visitor put pressure on families, leaving the carer "exhausted".

She added: "If you’re going into hospital and you're not able to have your family with you, you're going to come out worse." In some cases, patients who needed hospital care had chosen not to go because they were worried about being isolated from family, she said.

Caroline Abrahams, the Charity Director at Age UK, said it was "imperative that hospitals open their doors to visitors again as wide as they possibly can" as the pandemic eases.

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Source: The Telegraph, 18 February 2022

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