Visits to Glasgow Royal Infirmary wards restricted over Covid-19 concerns

Who can visit: NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde announced yesterday that only essential visits will be allowed to the wards - visits to people receiving end of life care and supporting people with mental health issues, dementia, autism or learning difficulties is still allowed.

Why is it being restricted: This is based on particular issues within the nightingale wards with open accommodation where separation of patients and their visitors is more challenging and social distancing and other mitigations against Covid are more difficult to observe. Glasgow Royal Infirmary has also experienced an increase in Covid-19 hospital admissions.

The decision was taken to help protect patients, visitors and staff.

What wards are not affected: Maternity wards are unaffected by the changes, and normal visiting continues to take place there, and all other wards at GRI.

What is the NHS saying: Jennifer Rodgers, deputy nurse director, said: “This has been a difficult decision, but it is essential to help protect our patients, visitors and staff. We recognise how difficult this for patients and the people that matter most to them and we will keep this under close review so that we can return to person centred visiting as soon as possible.

“For those who plan to visit a relative at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and are unsure of what visiting guidelines apply, please either call the ward or go to our website where you will find more information.

“If you are visiting any of our hospitals, we strongly recommend that you have a Voluntary Lateral Flow Test prior to visiting and then undertake these twice per week for as long as you are a visitor.”