Bring your own mask if visiting a patient in Hospital
Anyone visiting a patient in a Far West LHD facility is asked to bring their own mask or face covering to wear, as part of new COVID-19 measures to prevent an outbreak of the virus in LHD facilities.
The wearing of a mask or face covering whilst visiting a patient in a FWLHD facility was made mandatory last week (Friday, 24 July 2020).
The health service is now asking visitors to bring their own mask or face covering. This will assist the health service in the management of its supply of masks for use by staff and patients.
This rule also applies to anyone attending a medical appointment in a FWLHD health service.
The new NSW Health advice on mask use is underpinned by expert risk assessments. Mask wearing is another defence against COVID-19 but it is not a substitute for other established precautions such as hand hygiene and physical distancing.
NSW Health has also directed all health workers in public hospitals must now wear a surgical mask if they are working within 1.5m of patients. Patients admitted to hospital are also strongly encouraged to wear a mask, especially when they are leaving their room, where possible.
Wearing of face masks by the general population should be considered in situations where you are unable to maintain a physical distance of 1.5m.
The public are reminded that the new visiting hours are 10am to 12noon and 5pm to 7pm each day. Visitors to Broken Hill Health Service have also been restricted to one visitor per patient per day.
These are additional measures to those already in place at FWLHD health services to ensure patient and staff safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new hours do not impact on people with health appointments or attending the Emergency Department.
Please avoid all non-essential visits to the hospital. We want to minimise as much as we can, non-essential foot traffic through the health service. This will help in the event of an outbreak and contact tracing is required.
Individual circumstances impacted by the new arrangements may be considered on a case by case basis through requests to health service management.
The new arrangements will be in place indefinitely at this stage. Signs will be displayed about the new restrictions and information passed out at the entry Concierge service.