With immediate effect visiting arrangements on our adult inpatient wards are now returning

With immediate effect visiting arrangements on our adult inpatient wards are now returning to our pre-Christmas visiting arrangements which is one visitor for an hour per day, between 2-4pm or 6-8pm in our COVID negative zones.

Northampton General Hospital is continuing to ask patients, visitors and staff to wear masks to prevent the spread of infections like COVID-19 and flu.

COVID-19 cases at NGH have fallen from 71 cases and 45 flu cases on December 29, to 45 COVID-19 and 26 flu beds today (January 9) and the trend appears to be downward.

Infections have fallen over the last two weeks and we feel we have now reached a point where we can relax some of the measures we have taken to protect our patients. We understand just how important visiting is to patients and how it helps them to recover, and we need to balance this very carefully against the risk of infections being brought into the hospital.

Our hospital remains on critical incident due the high emergency care demand and pressures on discharging patients from hospital. The hospitals’ infection prevention and control guidance to the public includes:

• Anyone showing any symptoms of COVID-19 or feeling otherwise unwell must not visit.
• Do not visit if a member of your household has tested positive for COVID-19 or flu
• Visitors, parents, guardians, siblings will be asked to wear a surgical facemask to visit our wards – including the Emergency Department
• Symptom /wellness checks will be completed on arrival in our wards
• Please continue to wash your hands regularly before, during, and after, attending hospital and follow staff instructions relevant to the area being attended.

 Other actions local people can take to support their hospitals at this difficult time include:

• Please continue to wash your hands regularly before, during, and after, attending hospital and follow staff instructions relevant to the area being attended.
• Only going to A&E where this is absolutely necessary and using alternatives such as GP telephone appointments, pharmacies, Corby Urgent Care Centre or NHS 111.
• Don’t unnecessarily accompany someone to hospital unless your presence is vital for their safety. We have limited socially distanced waiting facilities and cannot allow these to become unnecessarily crowded
• Please attend your appointments on time – but not too much before time. If you arrive too early, you will be making waiting areas more crowded than they need to be.
• Have flu and COVID-19 vaccines to help to boost immunity throughout the winter