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Coronavirus warning

Please do not come to the hospital. Call NHS 111 and follow their advice.

Do you need to self-isolate? If you have a high temperature or have a new dry cough then you should self-isolate for 7 days.

You will need to read what guidance Public Health England offers regarding seeking help from neighbours, friends and family, about maintaining good mental health, about ensuring the safety of vulnerable people around you and about ending the isolation after 7 days. More information is available on the NHS website here.

Visiting; details about current restriction on access to hospital

Please be aware that we have now closed all acute hospital wards to non-essential personnel. Visitors will not be allowed access to wards. This is to protect patients, staff and the general public. This ban on visitors includes our intensive care unit, the Regional Neurological Rehabilitation Unit and Mary Seacole Nursing Home. There are a number of exceptions:

Children’s ward. Access any time. One named parent per visit. Names to be registered with staff.
Neonatal intensive care unit. Parents only.
Maternity delivery suite. One birthing partner.
Carers (for instance, from a care home needing to remain with the patient)
Patients with learning difficulties requiring their carer
Patients coming to the end of life. Relatives will supply staff with a list of family members. Only one family member at a time can access the hospital.
Faith leaders have also been contacted with this message:

Due to the current pandemic and national guidance the Trust has taken the decision to stop all visiting to general ward areas. This is to protect our staff, patients and the general public. We do however, fully acknowledge that it is important for relatives to have time with their loved one as they enter their final stages of life.

To ensure we are able to provide this we would ask that a list is provided to the nursing team of people that will need to visit. We would ask that these are immediate family members only and not family members that are self-isolating or symptomatic. People requesting access who are not on the list will not be granted access to the hospital premises. We must also request that visitors attend the hospital one at a time and that they leave either before or on arrival of the next visitor.

For safety reasons related to the current pandemic, it is paramount that visitors are not congregating in corridors.

For other areas such as children and Maternity we continue to have restricted visiting in place and access to those areas will only be by named persons as provided to the nursing staff.

For people still coming to the hospital for blood tests. Please enter the hospital via the rear entrance to the site on Clifden Road, turn left and go to the Clifden Centre, recognisable by the large green wall, where our phlebotomists are holding blood testing sessions.

Homebirth service suspended for safety reasons.

Our homebirth service has been suspended for the foreseeable future. All imminent mums-to-be using the service have been contacted and informed of the suspension.

With the health service across London, including our colleagues in the ambulance service, under unprecedented pressure due to the Covid-19 outbreak, there has been a growing risk of delay if a homebirth mother requires an urgent transfer to hospital.

In a message to the mums-to-be, our Head of Midwifery, Shirley Peterson said: “Any reason that requires a homebirth to transfer to hospital is a maternity emergency and approximately 40% of our homebirths require transfer to hospital. In addition, we are aware that there have been some cases where we cannot maintain a safe environment for our midwives as some women have not been honest about their or their family’s status of isolation in regards to Covid 19.

“We know that this will cause a number of concerns to you but we have made this decision to ensure that you, your baby and our staff are safe. We would like to reassure you that we will continue to support your birth choices where safely possible in the hospital and for many in the birth centre if your birth remains uncomplicated. We know that many of you will be concerned because of the increasing cases of Covid 19 and this may have led to your decision to have a homebirth. To maintain your safety, the hospital is only allowing staff and authorised persons into the hospital. On arrival at the maternity unit you will be asked questions to identify whether you are suspected or have Covid 19. This is to ensure that we provide optimum care to you. It is also to ensure that we protect other pregnant women. If you do not have Covid 19 you will be cared for away from any women that have Covid 19.

“The homebirth team are still available to answer your queries and we hope that they can continue to provide your antenatal and postnatal care. We plan to review this decision as the situation progresses and will contact you accordingly if we can reinstate the homebirth service. Please do not hesitate to contact Francine Chang, Homebirth Team lead should you wish to discuss any aspect of this matter.”

Our Outpatients clinics are currently closed whilst we focus on treating Covid-19 patients. However, we are talking to local GPs and know that some patients require urgent consultations. We will be contacting those patients by phone over the next few days.