Routine (elective) care and treatment is restarting at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn following extensive planning to make it as safe as possible for patients and staff.
During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, QEH continued to provide all emergency and urgent care to all patients that needed it and routine clinics were switched to video or phone consultations where possible. This allowed the Trust to continue with the most urgent face to face clinics, procedures and operations throughout the crisis. However, we are now ready to restart all of our routine (elective) work following extensive planning to make it as safe as possible for patients and staff.
As routine elective activity returns to the QEH, extra safety measures have been put in place to protect patients and staff. This means that all patients coming onto site will need to bring and wear a face covering. This can be a cloth face mask or scarf and QEH staff will also be wearing facemasks while on site.
A number of other safety measures have been put in place too, this includes hand sanitising stations at each entrance – ensuring patients can decontaminate their hands on arrival and when leaving the site and floor stickers have been laid throughout the main hospital corridors making it easy for everyone to socially distance.
Routine (elective) care and treatment at QEH are also resuming at around 50% of capacity compared to normal, in line with national guidance and other NHS Trusts. This is to help ensure that extra cleaning can take place in-between patients and allow social distancing rules to be adhered to.
Chief Nurse at QEH, Libby McManus said: “Ensuring our patients are safe and feel safe while they are at our hospital is our top priority.
“We have taken our time planning the return of our planned and routine care to ensure it is as safe as possible and we have put in place a number of extra measures to keep everyone safe.
“Patients will be asked to wear a face covering while on site and asked to decontaminate their hands when arriving and leaving our hospital.
“We hope that these measures will make everyone feel safe and comfortable to attend routine and planned treatments where they need to.”
Virtual and telephone consultations will continue for many patients where appropriate.
Visiting at the hospital currently remains restricted to control the spread of Covid-19. Visiting is currently only allowed in exceptional circumstances, such as the end of life, for birthing partners, parents of children and where a patient has particular needs such as a learning disability or mental health issue. The hospital is supporting families to keep in touch with their loved ones through free calls via a dedicated patient line, virtual visits using hospital tablets and smart phones and messages to loved ones through via our PALs service.
Patients and visitors must not attend appointments if they should be self-isolating because they, or somebody close to them, has, or has had, symptoms of Covid-19 such as a high temperature, new, continuous cough, or loss or change to their sense of smell or taste.
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