TV presenter on ‘cruel’ policy for hospital visitors
KIRSTIE ALLSOP QUESTIONS HULL RULES
TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp has hit out at Hull hospitals over their patient visiting restrictions, branding the policy “cruel”.
The star of Location, Location, Location has criticised Hull University Teaching Hospitals Trust, which is responsible for Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital, about visiting regulations.
She recently condemned other hospital trusts for not relaxing the rules that came into force during the pandemic.
In a post on Twitter, Kirstie said: “How can @Hullhospitals justify this cruelty? ‘Visiting slots of up to one hour must be booked in advance with the ward sister or charge nurse and the visitor must be the same person for the duration of the patient’s stay in hospital.’ #familymatters #healing #familiarfaces.”
In an earlier tweet, she asked Hull NHS Trust of the policy: “Where is the science behind this? How does this help patients?”
The Hull trust told the Mail its visiting guidance had been kept under continual review and plans were in place to further extend visiting from next week.
While Kirstie has praised some hospitals for easing restrictions, allowing more people to visit a patient and for longer periods, she has also been responding to Twitter users from across the country who say their hospital trusts only allow one visitor a day.
She commiserated with followers who said that hospitals were operating visiting regimes that demonstrated “unscientific cruelty”, and that she considered “draconian” and “appalling”.
Kirstie said: “I am taking the time to look at many hospital websites and check on how welcoming they are to visitors. The best allow two visitors, between approximately 2pm and 8pm. The worst only allow visitors for ‘end of life.’
“But it is absurd that I’m having to do this. Surely there is someone [from the Government’s Department of Health] who can ask NHS Trusts to align their visiting rights and give the same opportunity for family time to everyone (aside from places where this would always have been an issue).”
The TV personality, who is also known for her craft programmes, shared personal information with her followers about her own hospital experiences, saying earlier this week: “Whenever I go to sit with my dad in ITU, I take a lateral flow test.
“These things used to be handed out like Smarties. Why can’t hospitals simply ask all visitors to take one, it takes just five minutes. If this was really about Covid there is a simple solution.”
In another post, she said: “My mother had cancer on and off for 26 years, it finally got her aged 66 in 2014. Often when she went to appointments she was receiving very difficult news.
“If there was someone with her to take notes it really helped.
“Family and friends matter to healing. That is a fact.”
She also wrote on Twitter: “Just for the record, supporting visitor right does not make you in some way anti-mask or anti-vax.
“I think there is still so much bizarre tribalism mixed up in all this. Either that or a scary amount of people don’t care what goes on in our hospitals until it impacts them.”
A spokesperson for Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said: “Visiting guidance is carefully considered in order to balance the care and wellbeing of patients with the potential risks posed by Covid-19.
“Extended visiting at our trust has been in place for months in certain circumstances, e.g. to support patients with advanced dementia, patients on end-of-life care pathways, and for parents of children admitted to wards or in receipt of neonatal care.
“Visiting guidance has been kept under continual review and we have plans in place to further extend visiting across the trust from next week.
“Arrangements are currently being finalised and will be shared with staff before being published on our website.
“There may be a small number of areas where visiting may still be limited or booking systems kept in place to protect the most clinically vulnerable.”