From Monday 6 July, those attending outpatient appointments in our hospitals may be permitted to be accompanied by one other adult in certain circumstances.
This will be at the treating clinician’s discretion and only for those coming in for a particularly important or sensitive appointment, or for those acting as a carer to the patient being seen.
Please note this does not include routine antenatal appointments at this stage.
All patients and visitors will be expected to wear their own appropriate face coverings whilst in our hospitals.
All other visiting restrictions are under review and we will update further as soon as we make any changes. All decisions are made to ensure the safety of our patients and staff as a priority.
Thank you for your understanding.
Update on antenatal scans
From tomorrow, 15 July, partners will be able to attend normal antenatal scans within maternity at Hinchingbrooke and Peterborough City Hospitals. Partners and women will need to wear a face covering at all times, and abide by our 2m social distancing guidelines. Extra hand sanitiser stations will be provided, which we expect both women and partners to use when entering and leaving the hospital.
When coming in for your appointment at Peterborough City Hospital we ask that partners wait outside until the woman is called into the scanning room. At this point they will be able to call their partner to join them. At Hinchingbrooke, the maternity assessment unit will call women, who will be waiting in their car, to let them know that they can make their way to the the scanning room along with their partners. If for any reason there is a slight delay, you will be asked to have a seat in the waiting area and partners will be asked to wait outside until the scan room is free to avoid overcrowding the small waiting area. Once the room is free both you and your partner can make your way into the room.
If you're appointment is in the Treatment Centre, due to the waiting area being larger, both the woman and her partner can wait together until they are called through to the scanning room.
The teams at both hospital sites have worked diligently throughout the Covid period, and we want to thank them for their professionalism and dedication in these very difficult circumstances.
We would like to thank you for your patience and completely understand and share in your frustrations and worries around the current situation. The safety of our staff, visitors and patients is our number one priority and we have taken practical steps to implement safety measures to reduce these risks as much as much as we possibly can while we gradually reduce our visiting restrictions.
**Please note an amendment regarding the partners joining scans in the Early Pregnancy Unit**
Due to the nature of these scans, the number of people in the room (sonographer, chaperone, yourself plus a partner) and the size of the room it is not possible to adhere to the 2m social distancing guidance. If the opportunity arises the team will phone the partner and ask them to come through. We are currently working on a comprise for partners who are not able to join the scan and will update you as soon as we have the details.
If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to send us a direct message.
