New A&E rules prompt outrage in Doncaster

A&E rules at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, which have been implemented in response to the coronavirus crisis, have prompted anger amongst visitors.

During lockdown, visitor numbers plummeted, causing concern that people were putting themselves at risk by avoiding seeking medical treatment.

But now, figures have returned to pre-lockdown levels, and visitors are largely unhappy with the new social distancing measures.

New regulations mean that patients are expected to attend A&E alone, and cannot have a family member remain with them, except in extreme circumstances.

This has already sparked controversy amongst hospital patients and visitors.

A statement released by the Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said:

“Since the outbreak of Covid-19, NHS Trusts like ourselves have sadly been required to limit their visiting times.

“However, as we are seeing other restrictions lift across the country, we have taken the decision to review our visiting arrangements for certain types of patients.

“Like all areas of the Trust, the way that emergency care is being delivered has had to fundamentally change, and as one of the busiest services operated by our Trust, we must continue to restrict visitors and ask that patients are accompanied only in the most urgent of scenarios.

“While unfortunate and difficult, this is to ensure that we can support social distancing within what are fairly constrained clinical environments, and again I want thank local people in advance for their understanding in this matter.”

David Purdue, director of nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, added:

“Throughout the challenges presented during Covid-19, we have had to impose visiting restrictions upon a number of our services, asking that patients are only accompanied when absolutely necessary.

“At present, this way of working is particularly important as the number of patients has risen to pre-Covid-19 levels within our emergency departments, and we must do all we can to ensure that we adhere to social distancing and other infection prevention and control measures to protect both patients and staff within what are very restricted clinical areas.

“We are investigating further to see if we can improve our processes during this challenging time and understand what we can improve in future.”

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