UK hospitals tightening restrictions on visits - even to dying patients
Hospitals trying to slow the spread of coronavirus are tightening restrictions on visits – including to people at the end of their lives, with some supplying computer tablets and smartphones to help loved ones say their last goodbyes.
The relatives of one of the latest people to die from Covid-19 in Stockport said on Monday they were unable to see their loved one in his last moments, despite current NHS guidance that a visit will be allowed if the patient you wish to visit is receiving end-of-life care.
Medical staff at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals in London and those at East and North Hertfordshire NHS trust are now only considering requests for visits to the terminally ill on a case by case basis, and a trust in Birmingham is supplying dozens of iPads to wards to keep loved ones in touch after saying it prefers no visitors.
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Amid growing expectations that official guidance from trusts and NHS England could tighten as the number of sufferers being treated in hospitals rises, doctors at the Barts Health NHS Trust in London, where at least 60 patients with suspected Covid-19 have died, are starting to collect devices specifically to help loved ones communicate with the dying.
Trisha Conroy, the daughter of Frank Hammond, 83, from Hazel Grove who died in Stepping Hill hospital in Stockport on Thursday, said the family were not allowed to see him in his last moments but instead a caring nurse made sure to put him on the phone.
“It was horrendous, heartbreaking,” Conroy said. “We were all sat on the bed in our house when we got the call, the whole family. We had been told three days earlier that they were withholding further treatment and just giving him oxygen and we had thought it would be a matter of hours, but it took three days.”
In common with most health authorities Stockport NHS Foundation trust last week suspended all visits with immediate effect, with some exceptions on compassionate grounds considered on a case-by-case basis and pre-arranged with the nurse in charge.
These exceptions include visits to those who are at end of life. But after seeing her father once for 10 minutes earlier in his hospital stay, Conroy said it was made clear to the family that “it would be the last time and we wouldn’t be able to be there when he died”.
Despite the distress of not being there, the family praised the nurse who contacted them by phone for “the ultimate act of compassion”.
A spokesperson for Stockport NHS foundation trust said it “would always try to facilitate meetings for the families of patients at the end of life wherever this was possible, including patients with Covid-19”.
More people are likely to be placed in a similar situation in coming weeks and NHS England officials accept that the official guidance could tighten to reduce the spread of the virus.
“It’s not too much of a leap to think it will get tighter still in a few weeks,” one said.
NHS guidance issued to professionals on palliative care during the coronavirus pandemic has urged “support for those close to the dying person, including the ability to keep in touch via phone or virtual communication (for example, Skype, WhatsApp)”.
It includes guidelines for gathering mementos of loved ones, including locks of hair and handprints after the moment of death. It says these must placed in a sealed bag and the relatives must not open these for at least seven days.
Birmingham community healthcare NHS foundation trust, which is only allowing some visitors on compassionate grounds, distributed iPads to wards over the weekend and said if families wanted to bring in tablets and smartphones they would get the items to patients safely.
Earlier in the outbreak families were offered the chance to be by a loved one’s side, but in some cases declined and used a videolink instead, in order to reduce the risk of infection.
