• Restrictions on visiting patients at Royal Bolton Hospital during mealtimes relaxed
• From Saturday 1 February 2025, family, friends and carers will no longer be asked to leave
• Changes made following a wide review of evidence

Restrictions on visiting patients at Royal Bolton Hospital during mealtimes are being relaxed to improve emotional health and wellbeing support for patients and families.

From Saturday 1 February 2025, family, friends and carers will no longer be asked to leave wards and departments when patients are receiving their meals.

The changes are being made following a wide review of evidence by Bolton NHS Foundation Trust’s Library and Knowledge team, in which systematic reviews found no demonstrable benefit to excluding family, friends and carers during mealtimes.

Evidence around patient meal times did highlight the importance of support, patient positioning, leadership of registered nurses and the area leader, availability of menu information and ease of opening food products, such as jams and butters.

Tyrone Roberts, Chief Nursing Officer at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, said:

One of our main ethoses is the delivery of truly person-centred care, and to do that we have to respect how patients define their families, carers and friends and how they want them to be involved in their care.

“Welcoming and supporting families as care partners according to patient preferences has many benefits for patients and families, for staff and clincians, and for healthcare in general.

The updated guidance also considered staff feedback about asking visitors to leave and a lack of research evidence base to support this request.

Tyrone added:

We are confident these latest changes will provide more comfort to patients and their families by reducing stress and anxiety during a hospital stay.

“In early 2024, we amended our guidance to support people to visit between 10am and 7pm, yet with the option to visit outside of these times in discussion with ward and department staff, and feedback from staff and patients remains extremely positive.

“It remains important that we continue to create a calm environment that supports a healthy recovery and so still request a maximum of two visitors at any one time. There may also be some occasions where it’s appropriate for us to ask visitors to temporarily leave a ward to allow staff to provide treatment and care for patients.

Visitors are asked to take simple steps to keep everyone safe, including washing hands as people enter and leave wards, and not visiting if people have signs or symptoms of respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19 or flu, diarrhoea and vomiting or other infectious illnesses.

For more information about visiting arrangements at Royal Bolton Hospital, please visit Bolton NHS Foundation Trust’s website.