Visiting will only be allowed in ‘exceptional circumstances’ at York Hospital to try to stem the norovirus outbreak.
York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has made the decision to restrict visiting to the hospital in order to ensure the safety of patients and staff.
Visiting will now only be allowed in exceptional circumstances – for example, patients in Intensive Care, the Children’s Ward, Maternity and patients receiving End of Life Care.
Health bosses say “the situation will be reviewed on a daily basis and as soon as it is safe to do, we will lift the restrictions”.
Only second time
It has been urging people not to visit the hospital if they have been unwell.
Bosses have imposed the visiting restrictions as the virus “keeps being brought back into the hospital from the community”.
Chief nurse at the trust Beverley Geary said:
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Over the past few weeks we have experienced a high level of norovirus at York Hospital which has resulted in the closure of wards in order to stop the spread, which means we have reduced bed capacity.
Closing wards can help to contain the virus but visitors play a huge part in preventing the continued spread of the infection.
The safety of our patients is our top priority.
While we recognise the importance of having people visit when you are in hospital, we now need to introduce these measures in order to protect our patients, as well as keeping our staff safe, well and able to come into work.
Signs have been displayed throughout the hospital informing people of the restrictions and the information is on the homepage of the trust’s website.
Beverley added: “We would ask people to respect the decision and to treat our staff, who will be enforcing the visiting restrictions, with courtesy and respect.”
Most people recover within one or two days from norovirus, however if symptoms persist (more than 48 hours), the advice is not to come to the Emergency Department but to phone the GP or NHS 111.