Shropshire hospitals reviewing visiting guidance but current rules to remain for now

You may have heard that guidance related to visiting hospital settings has been updated by the NHS.

Throughout the pandemic, we had to make the very difficult decision to suspend visiting at our hospitals to protect our patients and keep you as safe as possible.

We continue to support our patients and their loved ones as best we can with ongoing compassionate visiting, including in end of life care, children’s wards, and for those with specific needs.

There are also separate arrangements for neonatal and within our maternity departments with two birthing partners still permitted.

As a trust, we are now reviewing the updated guidance and looking at how and when we implement it.

This decision will be balanced against a number of factors, including the number of Covid-19 cases in our hospitals, which have risen markedly again over the last few weeks.

While this review is taking place all existing visiting rules will stay in place and we will continue to encourage those we are caring for to make full use of the other options available to keep in touch.

Our Chaplaincy Team is available to support; patients can access ward iPads/mobile phones if they do not have a mobile phone; and loved ones will be encouraged to send a message to those in hospital by following the link on our website here.

All those visiting hospital settings are still being asked to wear face coverings and abide by social distancing guidance unless they are exempt.

We care for the most vulnerable in our communities and ask you all to still follow this guidance to ensure that we keep our colleagues, patients and visitors safe. Once again, thank you for your support.

‘Ask Me’ posters, produced by our Maternity teams and the Maternity Voices Partnership Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin, have been rolled out across our Maternity Services.

The posters aim to reassure and remind those we are caring for and their partners that our teams are here to answer any questions they may have.

The posters have been produced following feedback from service users and their support partners through our User Experience (UX) card system.

The User Experience card system was launched to ensure women and their families are listened to and that their voices are heard by asking recent maternity service users, support partners and maternity staff to Complete UX cards.

UX cards are a simple way to provide feedback, capture their needs and explain how they think these needs could be met, which then shapes developments in our Maternity Services.

Last Friday, NHS Charities Together hosted a live-broadcast remembrance event to mark the second anniversary of when the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic and to reflect upon the incredible sacrifices of health and care staff.

It was an honour for SaTH to be one of a handful of trusts represented at the event.

Wilfred Cadelina, a charge nurse on Ward 35 at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, attended the service at the National Memorial Arboretum, on the trust’s behalf.

The event was also very personal to Wilfred as he himself was in ITU for a week and in hospital for a month with Covid-19 near the start of the pandemic. Wilfred said that the service was amazing.

We would like to thank Wilfred for his involvement – a reminder of not only his own resilience and strength in recovering from the virus but also of the care and skill shown by colleagues in helping in that recovery.