NHS Boss Orders Hospitals to Ditch ALL Remaining COVID Visiting Restrictions–As She Says ‘no patient should have to be alone’…

by Emily Craig at Daily Mail

• NHS boss told trusts to allow visits to boost patient mental health and recovery
• Hospitals should return or pre-Covid policies ‘or better’ on inpatient visiting 
• It comes after dozens of hospitals still had limits on visiting last month

NHS hospitals have once again been told to scrap any patient visiting restrictions introduced during the Covid pandemic.

Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, yesterday told trusts to allow visitors to boost patients’ ‘experience, mental health and recovery’.

In a letter sent to hospital bosses, she said all healthcare settings ‘should now begin transitioning back towards their own pre-pandemic (or better) policies on inpatient visiting’.

Ms Pritchard added the ‘default position’ should be ‘no patient having to be alone unless through their choice’.

NHS guidelines were updated in March to allow patients to have two visitors for at least one hour per day and ‘ideally for longer’…