Visiting on a COViD ward

[PaperHalo]

Has anyone had experience of visiting a loved one on a COViD ward?
My mum was already extremely ill with liver disease before she caught COViD in hospital. She was discharged but readmitted on Christmas Day.
My sister, my dad and I all just got what feels like the ‘preparing’ phone call... feels like the one before the one when they call to say that they are withdrawing all treatment.
So I guess we will soon be able to visit but how does that work? Will we then have to isolate ourselves? For 10 days? Or more? My partner’s father is in a hospice at the moment also on end of life care I can’t see how it would be fair for me to visit my mum if that would compromise him seeing his dad? I know we could isolate separately but we also have a two year old to look after and I don’t see how it will work her not being able to see one of us let alone how the one of us will handle a 2 year old 24/7 alone in isolation on top of everything else!
Has anyone got any experiences that they can share?

It does vary from trust to trust, but speaking only of the Covid Ward I work on, only 1 person will be allowed to visit and only at the very end. Not all of you.

You will be asked to self isolate for 10 days as you will have had contact with a Covid positive patient.

I’m so sorry you are going through this, it’s shit .

So sorry you're all going through this, OP
In my trust, a maximum of 2 next of kin are allowed to visit when it's decided that the patient is approaching end of life and will be staying in hospital. They must be the same 2 each visit, and they have to then isolate for 10 days from the first visit, so run the risk of missing the funeral. It may be that in your local trust they say that the self isolation starts from the day you had contact outside hospital with the patient, if they were known to be positive on admission.

Such an awful time for families, my heart goes out to you all

So sorry for you op; this is just awful.

I’m no expert on actual COVID wards but I just took a look at a few different hospital trust rules on visiting “end of life” COVID patients. As Coffee Runner said, policies probably vary but likely only one visitor, who cannot be someone already Self isolating because of contact with a COVID patient. Will have to wear whatever PPE the ward requires the visitor to wear and be prepared to be instructed to self isolate due to likely exposure to the virus during the visit.

Sending you a big hug. I really feel for you; such a traumatic situation. Perhaps you need to decide between you, who is the best person to visit, should you get another call. Maybe who can isolate most easily and who is at least risk.

Thanks for the replies.

We are Newark and Sherwood Trust, I guess we will see what the next few days bring and then we will find out...