March 13, 2022 7.00 am This story is over 39 months old

Visiting restrictions lift even further in Northern Lincolnshire hospitals

You no longer need to book a slot to visit
Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby (left), and Scunthorpe General Hospital (right). | Photo: NLaG
By Local Democracy Reporter

Two weeks after relaxing visiting restrictions for its hospitals, an NHS trust covering Northern Lincolnshire has further eased rules to allow patients to be visited twice a day.

At the end of February, Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust announced visiting restrictions at their hospitals in Scunthorpe, Grimsby and Goole would be eased “safely in a phased approach“.

This meant one named person per patient was able to visit twice a day at a pre-arranged time, but this will now be changing again.

From Monday, March 14, visiting will be available across all inpatient areas, and patients will be able to have two visitors per day, one at a time.

Admission areas such as the Integrated Acute Assessment Unit are also now open to visiting, and there is no need to book a time slot, you can just turn up.

However, patients and loved ones are being asked to coordinate visits to ensure that only one person comes at once, as any additional visitors will be turned away. Children under 16 will also not be allowed to visit.

Patients should still attend appointments alone, but anyone attending the emergency department can now be accompanied by someone else.

Chief Nurse, Ellie Monkhouse, said: “We hope the news of easing our restrictions further will come as good news to our patients, their families and friends.

“Our priority is the safety of our patients and while we welcome the return of visitors, we must ease our visiting restrictions safely in a phased approach.

“Visitors must continue to wear a face mask (unless exempt) and should take a lateral flow test on the day of their visit before coming to the hospital, to ensure they are not unknowingly spreading coronavirus.

“Anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19 or has symptoms should not attend.”