Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals Visiting Restrictions - Important COVID-19 Update
To protect patients, visitors and staff visiting restrictions will remain in place to most areas at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals until further notice. Please click here for the answers to frequently asked questions on the visiting arrangements.
For guides to each hospital, please click on the links below:
We have introduced these measures to reduce the number of people passing through the hospital sites and offer the maximum opportunity to reduce transmission of COVID-19.
In line with these measures, we have closed off access to our disabled car park and this space is temporarily being used for ambulances arriving at the Emergency Department.
We would like to thank all patients and visitors for their support, patience and co-operation. We appreciate these restrictions and measures will cause concern but our focus is to maintain patient safety and prevent spread of infection.
Wearing Face Masks in our Hospitals
All patients, visitors, and staff are expected to use a new surgical mask issued by the checkpoint teams when they arrive at all hospital sites. If you are wearing your own face covering or mask you will be asked to remove this and use a new mask for the duration of your visit. The mask must cover your mouth and nose and be worn at all times, unless your clinician asks you to remove it.
There are checkpoints by each entrance and you will be asked to use the hand sanitiser provided and have your temperature taken (by a forehead thermometer). On exit, please dispose of the mask in the clinical waste bin provided and sanitise your hands.
It is expected that everyone on the hospital sites wears a mask with the following exceptions, in line with national guidance:
- children under the age of 11 (Public Health England do not recommended face coverings for children under the age of 3 for health and safety reasons)
- people who cannot put on, wear or remove a face covering because of a physical or mental illness or impairment, or disability
- where putting on, wearing or removing a face covering will cause you severe distress
- if you are speaking to or providing assistance to someone who relies on lip reading, clear sound or facial expressions to communicate
Our vision is to be one of the best healthcare Trusts in the country.
One of our key objectives is to achieve the highest possible quality of care and treatment for our patients.
In this section, you can find out more about our care and support services as well as assistance for your visit.
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Central to our vision is to provide high quality care for everyone. With the recent publication of the second Francis Report looking into the failings in care at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, we are once again reminded of the responsibility we carry on behalf of our patients and the importance of working in a values-led, open and safe culture. As you might expect, we have spent time with staff reflecting on the findings of this landmark report, working together to assure ourselves that something on that scale could never happen here. From the Board to the front line we continue to actively encourage, discuss and collect feedback using what we hear to make the right improvements for patients. And with the introduction of the new Friends and Family Test from April, we look forward to having an even richer source of feedback down to ward level.
We have been particularly encouraged with our results from the national patient survey, which show good improvements for the third year running, especially in how patients feel about nursing care. Given that the quality of nursing care has also been in the spotlight following the Francis Report, it is particularly reassuring for our patients and their families to know that our nurses are doing a good job.
We have also been working hard to improve the experience of patients who come to our hospitals as an emergency. With the help of the Department of Health’s Emergency Care Intensive Support Team, we have put in place a number of changes to help the flow of patients through our hospitals. Nationally this winter has seen hospitals up and down the country struggle to maintain the four hour waiting target. Within this context we are particularly encouraged that our performance has improved and that we met this important quality target for most of the financial year.
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Andy Field Chairman |
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Suzanne Rankin Chief Executive |