You should not visit if you have covid-like symptoms, even if you’ve had a negative test result. Passing your illness, whether it’s Covid or another respiratory disease, onto your loved ones and other patients could cause them to become seriously ill and slow their recovery. The only exceptions to this rule would be for absolutely essential visiting (e.g. end-of-life visiting) and would be at the discretion of the ward manager.
You should not visit if you’ve been in close contact with someone who has tested positive in the last 5 days (or 10 days if you haven’t been vaccinated). The only exceptions to this rule would be for absolutely essential visiting (e.g. end-of-life visiting) and would be at the discretion of the ward manager.
The general visiting rules are the same regardless of vaccination status. The only way the rules differ is the length of time that must have passed if you’ve been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid (see question above).
Staff will ask you questions about whether you’re experiencing symptoms, whether you’ve recently tested positive for Covid, whether you’ve been in contact with someone who has recently tested positive, and whether you’ve been asked to self-isolate by the Test, Trace, Protect service. They may also ask you about the purpose of your visit and your relationship with the patient.
We have been able to increase our visiting times in Maternity Services, bringing them in line with those we operated prior to the pandemic.
One nominated partner can visit our units from 10am until 8:30pm each day. This includes our antenatal wards, during the induction of labour and on our postnatal wards.
Yes, the rules for end of life visiting are the same – however you may be offered a few more exemptions from the general rules if circumstances require it, at the discretion of the ward manager.
Essential support assistants (such as interpreters or essential carers) are not classified as visitors in the same way as members of the general public. Please discuss with your health professional.
Yes, you can bring supplies with you. You can bring snacks, such as crisps or sweets (in moderation), but we advise against bringing home-made or home-cooked meals for the patient.
Yes, although we ask all visitors to navigate our hospitals with a purpose and a destination – you should not walk around for the sake of walking around.
If a patient requires assistance or support during an outpatient appointment, they may bring one person with them. The accompanying person needs to wear a face covering at all times and regularly use the alcohol hand gel which will be available.
Relaxing visiting restrictions has been a high priority for the Health Board throughout the pandemic. Restrictions have been reviewed weekly by a dedicated team made up of clinical staff from across the Health Board, with representation from Public Health Wales. We know how important visiting is to the mental health and wellbeing of our patients and their loved ones, but we have to balance that benefit with the risk of Covid infection to the vulnerable and unwell people we care for.
We will continue to review the visiting rules regularly over the coming weeks.
Further relaxation of the rules will depend on the Covid situation continuing to improve over the next few months. Please bear in mind that hospitals are settings full of vulnerable and unwell people, and so rules have to be stricter there than in a pub/cinema/event where the majority of people are healthy.
It's unlikely we’ll be relaxing restrictions further over the next few weeks, but we will be constantly reviewing the situation.