24 March 2020

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) has today taken the difficult decision to suspend visiting at the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH), to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

SaTH is working hard to prevent the spread of the virus and to protect staff, patients and visitors from becoming seriously ill.

With this in mind, we have made the decision to suspend all visiting to our wards at PRH and RSH.

Dr Arne Rose, Medical Director for SaTH, said: “We have not taken this decision lightly and we appreciate it may be frustrating or worrying for the families and friends of patients, but we can assure you that it is the safest precaution to take at this time.

“In line with our usual practice, Ward staff will contact next of kin if a patient in our care becomes seriously ill or if there are changes to their treatment.”

Exceptions to the suspension of visiting will be applied to Children’s Services, Maternity and the Neonatal Department, end of life care patients and patients with specific needs.

  • Children’s Ward: One parent/carer will be allowed to be with the child. Two named visitors are permitted and these visitors can alternate.
  • Maternity: One birthing partner will be allowed into the delivery suite. Staff will contact birthing partners when women are transferred to the delivery suite.
  • Neonatal unit: will allow parents only to visit.
  • End of life care patients will be permitted to receive visitors but this will be restricted to next of kin and an additional two visitors.
  • Specific needs: You will be able to accompany someone into our hospitals if you are;
    • supporting them and the patient has a mental health issue such as dementia, a learning disability or autism, where not being present would cause the patient to be distressed.
    • a carer for a vulnerable patient or translator

Arne said: “We support our staff with this difficult decision which will help us to better protect staff, visitors and patients from this infection.”

View our poster here

Any future changes will be shared on our public website at www.sath.nhs.uk and on our social media platforms.