Latest changes to visiting guidelines

Latest changes to visiting guidelines

2nd Dec 2020

We are continuously reviewing our visiting policy during the Covid-19 pandemic. Our current restrictions and guidelines are as follows:

• Inpatients (those staying at Alder Hey for a period of time) may be allowed TWO visitors at a time from their family bubble. However this is at the discretion of the nurse in charge of the ward.
• Only ONE adult to accompany a child to the Emergency Department, Radiology deapartment or to an outpatient appointment.
• Patients with symptoms, having been in contact with someone Covid positive, or awaiting a Covid test result, only ONE visitor at a time chosen from two members of their family bubble– to be agreed with Ward Manager
• Children (under 18)  i.e. brothers and sisters, are not allowed to visit.
• Unwell visitors or those with possible symptoms of COVID-19 must not attend the hospital.
• ALL visitors to the wards are required to wear a surgical face mask (available at entrance points)
• ALL visitors to other parts of the hospital site are required to wear a cloth face covering as a minimum. Find out more here.

Please also note that Alder Hey is currently closed to anyone other than hospital staff, patients and parents/carers visiting their children.

Our security team will support our volunteer colleagues in greeting our staff, patients and visitors at all hospital entrances, to ensure that only they are accessing the building. We will also be ensuring that social distancing measures are in place outside the hospital to ensure safe queuing

These measures have been brought in to reduce the movement of people who may potentially, unwittingly carry coronavirus into the hospital and therefore risk transmission to patients, other visitors and members of staff.

Virtual Visiting at Alder Hey

We know and understand that these visiting restriction may prevent the amount of contact you have with your child. As a result, we have launched a new Family Support Messaging Service to allow our children and young people to keep in touch with families.

The Service will see a team of Alder Hey staff and volunteers on hand to deliver computer tablets compatible with Skype to allow for recorded or live video calling between our patients and families in order to maintain that essential face-to-face contact.

Family members will simply need to download Skype on their own personal device and book a time slot by emailing: patient.experience@alderhey.nhs.uk or Tel. 0151 282 4907. Once a time is allocated, guidelines for Skype and a unique reference number will be generated and sent to the family members one hour before the call.

Our service will also give families the opportunity to send text or recorded voice messages via email to loved ones 24 hours a day. Please email: patient.experience@alderhey.nhs.uk quoting your family members name alongside your message. Please be aware that all messages will be delivered after 2:30pm and any messages received after this time will be delivered the following afternoon.

We appreciate that this is an incredibly difficult time for everyone and that restricting our visitors will create challenges for our families. However, we believe that these measures are necessary to reduce the risk to our patients, families and our staff.