Covid: Hospital visits banned at fourth North East NHS trust

Visits have been suspended at hospitals across County Durham and Darlington, South Tyneside, Sunderland and Gateshead

Four hospital trusts in the North East have suspended visits to adult wards amid spiralling Covid cases.

Visits to wards in County Durham and Darlington, Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland, and North Tees and Hartlepool have now been halted.

There will be some exceptions including for patients having end-of-life care, child emergencies and women in labour.

Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust said it made the decision to protect patients from infected visitors.

The trust has become the latest in the region to suspend visits after South Tyneside and Sunderland, and North Tees and Hartlepool.

Nicola Bruce, director of operations at Gateshead Health Foundation Trust, said: "The Omicron variant of Covid-19 is now spreading rapidly in the local community and whilst we have been trying to maintain some visiting because we realise how important this is to patients and relatives, unfortunately, the increase in cases does now pose a greater risk of our patients acquiring the virus.

"A proportion of people with Omicron appear to have no symptoms and, regrettably, we have seen some transmission in our hospitals which has been linked to visiting.

"We have to put the protection of our patients as our first priority and so we have taken the difficult decision to temporarily stop all visiting unless there are exceptional circumstances."

The number of hospital staff off sick across the North East and north Cumbria has increased 135% due to Covid - rising from 1.7% to four per cent since 24 December 2021, the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System said.

There are currently 646 patients in hospitals with Covid-19 - which accounts for eight per cent of hospital beds across the North East and north Cumbria.

Neil Halford, medical director for the system, said: "Hospital trusts are continually reviewing their planned operations and procedures alongside caring for the sickest patients and ensuring infection prevention control measures can be adhered to.

"This a difficult balancing act and regrettably some planned operations and procedures may need to be postponed."