Written question WQ82523

We understand this is an extremely difficult and worrying time for parents, guardians and carers of sick babies but it is important to remember that Coronavirus has not gone away.

The health, safety and well-being of patients is at the heart of our guidance and it is for this reason that visiting restrictions are in place for these extremely vulnerable babies.

The Welsh Government hospital visiting guidance was published on 30 November and reviewed in March 2021. We have worked with key stakeholders in the development of the guidance which includes an exceptionality clause and a supplementary statement providing health boards, trusts and hospices with the flexibility to depart from the guidance in response to local levels of Covid-19 transmission.

The guidance states that in non-Covid areas there can be “One parent, guardian, or carer at the bedside at a time for paediatric inpatients and neonates”. However, this is guidance only, it is not mandatory and health boards have the discretion and flexibility to consider individual circumstances when facilitating visiting for sick babies.

Staff are expected to treat all requests from visitors with compassion and empathy whilst recognising there is a need to be equitable to all families in similar situations.

Visiting in healthcare settings needs to be risk assessed and agreed locally to ensure infection prevention and control measures can be followed. In addition to infection prevention and control issues, health boards will need to consider local environmental factors such as room size, equipment, distance between beds and the ability to maintain social distancing when making decisions to agree visiting by more than one visitor. We expect health providers to work with their infection prevention and control teams and Public Health Wales when making decisions to depart from the guidance.

Engaging with Public Health Wales to inform local decisions provides a collective reassurance that there is a consistent approach when taking decisions to impose visiting restrictions, which go beyond those set out in the guidance or indeed when relaxing the principles in the guidance.

Officials held a virtual meeting with the hospital visiting guidance working group on 28 May and the issue of visiting for sick babies and children was discussed. Members felt that the ‘one parent or guardian at the bedside for paediatric inpatients and neonates’ should remain at present.

This was due to:

• the vulnerability of sick children;

• the emerging Coronavirus variants;

• difficulties in maintaining infection prevention and control measure such as social distancing in some hospital environments if both parents are permitted to visit for all children eg distance between beds in wards; and