Hospitals near me are not allowing visitors from NYD

[Workyticket]

I'm in the North East. Both local trusts have said visitors won't be allowed - i understand the reasons behind this and fully support it if it helps contain the virus and exposes staff to less infection

I feel for anyone in hospital atm though. Are all areas doing this?

A friend has an adult child with severe learning and communication difficulties who had to have an emergency operation. Due his disabilities she was stay with him during the day when visiting wasn't allowed. She ended up feeding 3 other patients who would otherwise not have eaten. That is what I worry sbout with my 94yo dad currently back in hospital.

Staff are dropping like flies they are been under unbelievable pressure, we have a government that is more concerned with their popularity than the effect on the NHS. So can you really blame them using the little bit of power they can control.

Mine hasn’t allowed visitors for the entire pandemic. South west.

@AnyFucker

awful god knows what they are getting away with behind closed doors

What on earth do you mean ?

Hospital patients are, unfortunately, often dependent on visitors for food and water, plus help / advocacy in gaining / understanding their treatment.

My dad is 94, deaf and partially sighted. He is malnourished, has a uti and is very confused so is not in a condition to make decisions. It might help if the hospital updated DB - as detailed in hos notes dad's notes he has POA and mum has dementia. But no, they update mum who doesn't understand/forgets and then refuse to talk to anyone else on the basis they have spread updated mum. That's if you can get through. Every single time it takes a complaint before they do this even though it would mean we can talk to mum regularly and stop her repeated phone calls to the hospital because she forgets she has already spoken to them.

@mummyh2016 Our local hospital has been like this. I went for a scan last week and throughout Covid it's been policy that partners can only attend the 12 and 20 week scans.
Every woman in the waiting room was over 20wks yet I was the only one who left my DP outside in the car park.

Lots without masks or not wearing them properly. Plus blokes who reeked of weed.

I wish they'd just enforce the rules and stop putting the rest of us at risk. Plus it would be nice to be able to bloody well sit down rather than blokes nabbing all the empty chairs.

@milly74

awful god knows what they are getting away with behind closed doors

What the fuck is this supposed to mean? Have you any idea what' it''s like working in a hospital at the moment?

My DC is a medic , on their knees, stressed beyine belief due to staff shortages and working their arse off to save people.

There are some truly fuckinhg selfish people out there who refuse to wear maaks when they visited loved ones and don't want to do lateral flows follow basic hygiene etc. Don't even get me started on the selfish anti vax fuckers.

Iit"s awful that people can't ha e visitora but sadly very necessary at the moment as there is a real danger of risk to life from lack of staffing.
It seems to depend from hospital to hospital the policy but many will have virtual visiting in place for ICU.

. "I also worry about what would happen if my young adult dc needed hospital care, she has ASD and would absolutely refuse to go in alone - but I don't know if I would be allowed in with her. It really worries me as she has health issues."

My local hospital allows a carer to visit or stay with anyone who may become distressed /not cooperate with treatment.

Ds would need 2 people with him ( or the staff and other patients would be put at risk) so they would need to accommodate this.

its obvious from some of these stories what i mean. Patients are very vulnerable without visitors and some of the responses on here highlight why.

@tillyvonpantsalo it's bloody obvious. People are worried that yheir relatives aren't getting food and drink. It happened to vulnerable patients before covid, it will only have got worse. As I said on a previous thread, my friend who was there as a carer for her son ended up helping several other patients eat. For most of them it was simply a case of their food/drink being put where they couldn't reach it so hardly a great imposition on staff to get right.

@howdiditcometothis666

It's disgusting and totally inhumane *@AnyFucker* negligence is what goes on

yes exactly

I'm in Yorkshire, 37 weeks pregnant.
I've been allowed DP to any scan but not to any consultant appointment (which is weird because they are in the same place, you sit in the same waiting room and they're typically one after the other), in labour my DP will be allowed in when I am in active labour up until an hour after, my DD will not be allowed in should I have to stay in hospital afterwards for any reason and I would be allowed 1 visitor per day for 2 hours for the duration of my stay.
I'm more devastated that if I have to stay in the hospital I won't be able to see my toddler.
I don't know if rules have changed, I'll find out at my appointment on Tuesday, this was just what I was told a few weeks ago.

@Underhisi

. "I also worry about what would happen if my young adult dc needed hospital care, she has ASD and would absolutely refuse to go in alone - but I don't know if I would be allowed in with her. It really worries me as she has health issues."

My local hospital allows a carer to visit or stay with anyone who may become distressed /not cooperate with treatment.

Ds would need 2 people with him ( or the staff and other patients would be put at risk) so they would need to accommodate this.

Thank you for reassuring me

@Pixxie7

Staff are dropping like flies they are been under unbelievable pressure, we have a government that is more concerned with their popularity than the effect on the NHS. So can you really blame them using the little bit of power they can control.

What do you mean using the little bit of power they can control??????

I think it's a tragedy all round but don't know what the answer is. As a frequent patient I know the reality in hospital wards, I know how patients get overlooked despite the best efforts of staff who are rushed off their feet. I feel so sorry for staff at the moment, faced with so much vitriol and hatred for doing their jobs, but I feel so sorry for patients too. Hospital can be a scary, lonely place. My dad had some strokes earlier this year and wasn't allowed visitors, he was confused and upset, it was heartbreaking.

But what is the answer? They have to try and curb the infection spreading through, or it will lead to more illness and death. Omicron may be mild for most but hospitals house some of the most vulnerable, sick patients, and allowing it to spread there is a travesty (if we are going to use emotive terms like this.) What if the play off is between allowing visitors and preventing serious illness, death and further overwhelm through sheer numbers in the hospital, which then leads to staff being off, leading to further chaos and breakdown of the system.

Those saying this is 'disgusting', honestly, what is your answer? What would you do if you were in charge?

This is happening because we as a society have stopped caring about the spread, because 'it's just a cold' . These are the real world consequences.

Indeed @Madhairday.

These comments from HCPs on both sides of the Atlantic, seem relevant - hospitals have so little they can do, under current conditions, to control transmission:

twitter.com/drtomlinsonep/status/1476971511613382662?s=21

Visitors who do not abide by the masks, negative lft and one visitor per patient rule should not be allowed to visit.

Tbh, patients and staff probably have as much chance of contracting covid from staff as from visitors.

When basic levels of care have completely broken down, as they have in my uncles case, I don't know how anyone thinks that a family member going into the hospital, abiding by the rules and helping the patient with basic necessities such as eating, drinking, washing and toiletting is wrong and leading to worse outcomes than an elderly, confused patient being left to god and providence.

The idea that you can stop omicron from spreading within a hospital is quite frankly laughable. Leading virologists are saying this FFS. Its just so infectious. The concept of stopping visitors at that point becomes political and about optics (and stopping legal claims) rather than because its following the 'science'.

BIL has a senior role in one large hospital (doing both clinical and management roles) and pretty much said that there's so many cases now, that they will have to start doing reverse isolation soon due to the logistics of it - ie isolating the covid negative cases rather than the positive ones - because there are less of them.

The situation with covid requring running 'hot' and 'cold' areas requires more staffing to begin with and the current wave is just compounding an already existing pre-covid staff shortage due to an inability to fill positions.

BIL was telling me the % on understaffing expected at this hospital in January and its frankly appalling.

I think it likely covid positive staff who are well enough to work will be given exemption to work on covid hot wards very soon anyway (if its not already happening)

At this point given the reality of the situation, I can't help but think keeping visitors out of hospitals very much is about keeping eyes and ears out to reduce complaints, litigation or whistleblowing rather than anything to do with infection control.

I do think it utterly inhumane on every level to stop visitors under these circumstances. It turns hospitals into prisons and the isolation from families has a very real impact on mental health. We know mental health has an impact on physical health - if you are depressed or anxious it hinders recovery, produces more negative outcomes and lengthens hospital stays. Its something that has been studied and highlights the new for holistic care.

I supported earlier visitor bans to a point earlier on, but omicron is a game changer - and not because 'its milder' but because its just so transmittable. It does change the lens we should be seeing things through but i dont think this has really been understood in terms of its implications tbh.

@Crowdfundingforcake

DUncle in hospital after falling a week ago. Has dementia, serious infection (sepsis). One family member has been visiting every day for as long as possible. Ward staff are busy, so much so that if visitors were not allowed, DUncle would not be eating or drinking from one day's end to the next. He cannot feed himself, and no one is checking or helping him. To not allow a visitor to ensure he eats and drinks is barbaric. If the staff can't do the job his family will.

If there are issues with visitors not complying with mask wearing and testing they should be thrown out.

This.

My mother would have died without visitors when she was hospitalised after a fall 5 years ago. My sister had to fight to get the staff to notice she was ill. It took them almost 24 hours to get than to listen and act by which time she needed the ICU as she had deteriorated so much .

The staff actually were very happy for my sister and I to visit much more than in normal visiting times as they knew we did a lot for her and we could communicate better with her than they could l.

Patients will absolutely not be getting good nursing care in hospitals at the moment. Given how this was even before Covid and the dire nursing shortages now, that is simply not possible. I am not talking about ICU where I had no worries about my mother's care ( though I imagine even there is bad now) but back on the general ward I do believe she would have died without people to feed her and ensure she drank etc even before Covid

I understand why hospitals ban visitors in a pandemic but when staff levels are so low , some very frail people will die just from lack of having their basic needs taken care of . It is just so awful

My dads been in hospital a month, not covid related. Stayed in one hospital for two weeks, the transferred to a second one for his op. Not a single visit allowed the entire time. I was surprised to learn other hospitals allowed it.

You can’t just let Omicron run through the patient population.

This really does my head in.

Even Chinese level authoritarianism where omicron is not widespread is struggling (failing) to contain omicron.

Its not a question of humans 'allowing' omicron to spread amongst patients.

Its science realising that the level of how infectious and widespread omicron already is, means hospitals trying to still stop transmission are King Cnut who is already up to his bastard ankles.

Its not a question of 'just let Omicron run through the patient population' - that assumes we have the ability to control. It was just about doable against Delta. We don't have the same ability against Omicron.

Its about time we started to be honest about this publicly and with ourselves.

@Madhairday

I think it's a tragedy all round but don't know what the answer is. As a frequent patient I know the reality in hospital wards, I know how patients get overlooked despite the best efforts of staff who are rushed off their feet. I feel so sorry for staff at the moment, faced with so much vitriol and hatred for doing their jobs, but I feel so sorry for patients too. Hospital can be a scary, lonely place. My dad had some strokes earlier this year and wasn't allowed visitors, he was confused and upset, it was heartbreaking.

But what is the answer? They have to try and curb the infection spreading through, or it will lead to more illness and death. Omicron may be mild for most but hospitals house some of the most vulnerable, sick patients, and allowing it to spread there is a travesty (if we are going to use emotive terms like this.) What if the play off is between allowing visitors and preventing serious illness, death and further overwhelm through sheer numbers in the hospital, which then leads to staff being off, leading to further chaos and breakdown of the system.

Those saying this is 'disgusting', honestly, what is your answer? What would you do if you were in charge?

This is happening because we as a society have stopped caring about the spread, because 'it's just a cold' . These are the real world consequences.

We have serval wards closed in our trust. That's up to 90 beds that now can not be used until contained and negative test. That is the issues as well. That is why they also stop visiting. We don't want another break down in services.

RTB, presumably the reverse isolation would only be worth doing for CEV patients anyway?

As someone who had surgery and went through chemotherapy and radiotherapy whilst visitors were banned — I was fine with it. Actually I even preferred it that way. Let me feel rubbish without having to be concerned how relatives might feel, or muster up the effort to find things to talk about.

@HermioneWeasley

It’s completely inhumane. Everyone has lost all perspective and the only thing that matters is Covid transmission control, not patient care, patient advocacy, mental health or anything.

Agree. It's inhumane.