Hospitals ease visiting restrictions despite Covid uptick

Several NHS hospitals have eased visiting restrictions following national guidance, despite an increase in Covid-19 admissions.

A handful of hospitals across the country eased their visiting restrictions last week after NHS national guidance said patients should be allowed up to two visitors for at least one hour a day.

At least 15 hospitals have eased their visiting restrictions in line with this guidance, although three hospitals have made restrictions tighter as Covid cases rise in their local area.

The latest data shows that the number of Covid-19 patients in hospital increased sharply in some areas last week, with the number of patients in hospitals across both the southwest and the southeast now higher than the January peak, when Omicron infections were at their height.

Several hospital leaders outside of the south told The Independent that, while Covid-19 admissions had not increased to worrying levels as yet, the recent uptick meant more beds would be unavailable due to infection control, and it could also affect staff sickness.

One senior clinician in the northeast, who has had to close nearly 80 beds, said: “We’ve doubled our Covid numbers these past two weeks, but it’s the staff it’s taking out, and ward outbreaks, that are really causing problems.”

The clinician said their trust was likely to have to scale back some elective care this week.

In an update last week, Cambridge University Hospital Foundation Trust said it had 60 beds closed and 14 empty due to infection control measures, plus 186 staff off sick or isolating due to Covid.

Last week, the Royal Cornwall Hospital banned visiting in response to rising Covid-19 levels, while Wirral University Hospitals said it had taken the decision to continue with its stricter visiting rules due to higher levels of infection in the community.

Visiting guidance for trusts, published by NHS England, was updated last week but is not mandatory.

The guidance, published on 8 March, said: “It is important to recognise the contribution that visiting makes to the wellbeing and the person-centred care of patients; lack of access to visitors causes distress to them and their families. Visiting should be accommodated for at least one hour per day and ideally for longer. Visiting policies also need to reflect that Covid-19 is in general circulation.”

The changes to visiting come as access to free Covid-19 testing is due to come to an end by 1 April. Hospitals are still to receive clarity over whether they will receive funding to continue testing for NHS staff.

Over the weekend, health secretary Sajid Javid was criticised for saying Covid-19 infections were falling, despite public health data last week showing cases were up.

Speaking on Sky News on Monday, Mr Javid said the rise in Covid-19 cases was to be “expected” following the easing of restrictions.

When asked about cases of “Deltacron”, a recently identified subvariant, Mr Javid said: “I think there’s only a handful of cases here in the UK – it’s not something that’s of particular concern to us at this point in time.

“We do keep the situation under review on a daily basis, but the dominant variant in the UK, 99.9 per cent of infections, are Omicron infections.

“And whilst the rate has gone up modestly in the last few days, that’s to be expected, as we are now open as a country and there’s more social mixing, but there’s nothing in the data at this point in time that gives us any cause for concern.”