Hospital visiting restricted

Visiting at the Royal Alexandra Hospital has been restricted for three weeks due to Covid-19.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board announced yesterday that, due to the presence of covid, the ongoing prevalence of community cases and in order to follow infection prevention and control procedures, the Paisley hospital has “temporarily reverted” to essential visiting in all acute wards, with the exception of maternity, gynaecology and mental health.

These changes are now in effect and will be in operation for three weeks, up to and including Tuesday, November 2 .

The health board says the situation will be kept under review during this period and health bosses apologised for the impact this will have on patients and their families.

Melanie McColgan, NHSGGC director for the Clyde sector, said: “This difficult, but critical decision has been taken to help protect our patients, visitors and staff.

“We recognise this will be difficult for our patients and their loved ones, and for that we apologise.

“We are committed to keeping the situation under review so that we can reintroduce visiting to acute wards at the RAH as soon as it is safe to do so.

“For those who plan to visit a patient at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and are unsure of what visiting guidelines apply, please either call the ward or go to our website where you will find more information.

“If you do plan to visit any of our hospitals, we strongly recommend that you have a voluntary lateral flow test prior beforehand and then undertake these twice per week for as long as you are a visitor.”