Patients, visitors and staff at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton are again being asked to wear face masks.
New rules came into force on Tuesday (July 5th) as the number of people being cared for with Covid is rising.
Staff in certain areas of the hospital such as A&E, minor injury units and units visited by outpatients were told to wear masks last month as a “temporary measure” with a rise in coronavirus cases across Somerset.
A Somerset NHS Foundation Trust spokesman says: “Last month, we made the decision that mask wearing across most of our hospitals and units would be optional in line with national guidance.”
“However, once again we are seeing a rise in the number of patients being cared for with Covid-19 across our services, along with an increase in colleague sickness.”
“The safety of our patients and colleagues is of the utmost importance, and to minimise the spread of the virus we are taking the difficult decision that from Tuesday 5th July we will be asking everyone (patients, visitors and colleagues) to wear a face mask inside all of our NHS trust buildings, including clinical areas and non-clinical areas such as corridors.”
“We know this will be disappointing, following the relaxation of the rules last month – but it’s very important that we take this immediate, proactive step to respond to the increase in positive Covid-19 cases within our NHS trust and to help protect our patients and colleagues during this time.”
“We are sorry that we have had to introduce this change once again and thank you for your continued understanding and support.”
