We are experiencing very high numbers of patients being admitted with potentially infectious respiratory conditions. We continue to do everything that we can to try and minimise the impact of this and the risk to patients and colleagues but at this time we are not able to totally separate the care of those with a respiratory condition and those who are not displaying symptoms of respiratory illness. We will try to reduce the risk of this where possible, particularly for those who are immunocompromised, such as on our cancer wards.

It is possible that patients admitted to one of our hospitals will be cared for in an area where other patients have respiratory infections. Visitors also need to be aware that they are coming into an area that is likely to have people being cared for with infectious respiratory conditions and visitors come at their own risk.

We are encouraging our inpatients to minimise their contact with other patients, and to have good hand hygiene, especially if using any shared facilities such as bathrooms.

We are currently restricting our visiting, so that every adult inpatient should only have one visitor at a time, and those attending our emergency department should be accompanied by only one person. This is helping us to keep people safe by keeping overall numbers down.

Thank you for your continued kindness, patience and understanding.