Overview
Staying safe during your visit
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- Infection prevention and control
Coronavirus (COVID-19) update
Safety measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other infections are in place at our hospitals and community sites.
Please attend your appointment as normal unless you have been told something different by your clinical team. You can find more information about:
For the latest information on COVID-19 visit the GOV.UK website.
What we ask you to do
We'll ask you to:
- wear a surgical mask if you have respiratory symptoms, such as coughing, sneezing or a sore throat
- wear a surgical mask if you are accompanying or visiting a patient who has respiratory symptoms
- maintain good hand hygiene. Hand gel will be provided at the entrance and at regular intervals throughout our sites
In some areas, we may ask you:
- to take a COVID-19 test if you're being admitted to hospital
- wear a surgical mask if you are visiting a vulnerable patient or someone in a vulnerable patient area
Keeping you safe
We have a range of measures at our hospitals and community sites to prevent the spread of infection and keep you safe.
The steps we take include:
- following national guidance for infection prevention
- training our staff and volunteers in how to limit the spread of infection
- asking some people coming in for surgery to have a COVID-19 test
- deep cleaning our theatres, equipment and wards regularly
- having the right levels of staff and equipment
Vulnerable patient areas
There are areas of our hospitals where we might have extra measures in place to keep vulnerable patients safe. This might include physical distancing.
Please look out for signs and follow the guidance in these areas to keep our patients safe.
Over the past year we've all been working really hard to keep our patients and each other safe.
Some of our patients are extremely vulnerable and often anxious about coming in for their appointments.
As we start to get busier it's really important that we put our patients first.
That means wearing your mask properly, cleaning your hands, keeping apart wherever possible and respecting our colleagues who ask you to do this when you enter our buildings.
We must do everything we possibly can to make our patients feel safe whilst they are here.
Let's hear why staying safe and keeping apart matters to them.
I am a patient at the cancer centre here at Guy's Hospital.
I'm a patient of the dermatology centre.
I bring my daughter Tilda here for treatment.
I'm immunosuppressed and I come to the Evelina for my Infliximab treatments.
Supervising my husband who has a lung disease.
Because of my medical condition I know I have to make sure I keep safe and I expect people around me to do the same.
I'm more susceptible to infection and diseases and things like that.
It is very important to know that he feels secure and protected because he is a very extremely vulnerable person.
In the first lockdown there weren't very many people but now more people have started to come and even though there are more people I still feel safe due to all the things that the staff have been implementing.
I noticed people asking people and staff and patients to clean their hands and wear the masks properly.
It does make me feel better when I see staff wearing masks and using the hand gel and so forth.
It would be fantastic if they felt that they could challenge maybe those who don't because in and around hospital you do see people who maybe aren't wearing their masks or are wearing them halfway down their face and you know that does, now that it's getting busier, it definitely increases the anxiety.
If they weren't wearing the protection or the PPE I would have felt vulnerable, I would not have probably continued my treatment.
I would feel very anxious very upset. Because of my condition I know I have to keep safe.
Frustrating, because we know what the situation is especially in a place like a hospital.
I definitely think it's important that people still, you know, keep to the sort of restrictions and things like that because it really does help.
Please don't cut corners, please obey the rules that'll make me feel safe.
Be more careful and stick to the rules, and when they are followed it definitely makes us feel like people care.
Please show you care by cleaning your hands wearing a face mask and keeping apart.
This is all helping to keep ourselves, our patients, our colleagues and our families safe, so please do all you can.