Coronavirus (COVID-19) information for the public

Coronavirus symptoms

If you have either a high temperature, a new dry continuous cough, a loss of, or change in, your normal sense of smell or taste (anosmia), or if anyone you live with is displaying these symptoms.

You can find more guidance on Coronavirus at www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

Attending our hospitals

• Wash your hands thoroughly for 20 seconds when entering clinical areas (for e.g. wards) or make use of hand sanitisers that are located throughout the hospitals. You should also do the same when leaving, and follow all other guidance given by our staff
• Although there is no longer a requirement to wear a facemask whilst on our hospital sites, please continue to do so if you so wish or if you have respiratory symptoms. Some areas / wards may have positive cases of infections, therefore staff may ask for you to wear a facemask to prevent the spread of infection. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Emergency Department

Due to the high numbers of attendances in our Emergency Department, it is likely that you may have to queue outside at the Luton and Dunstable University Hospital (L&D).

Visiting

Information about changes to visiting at Bedfordshire Hospitals is available here.

Your hospital appointment

We know this is a very anxious  time for our patients coming into hospital but please be assured we are doing all we can to keep everyone on both our hospital sites safe. This includes:

• Extra measures  in place to support social distancing
• Hand sanitisers are at all entrances and exits
• Staff are also wearing appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

We ask you to kindly attend your outpatient appointment alone to help us reduce the footfall at both hospitals, preventing further spread of the virus. This of course does not apply to our paediatric patients (one adult parent/guardian to attend with patient) or for some of our adult patients who may require a certain level of carer support.