Coronavirus information

We’ve made some changes to protect patients and to reduce the risk of spread of coronavirus. Our priority is protecting our patients’ safety and wellbeing, their families, our volunteers and staff.

St Ann’s Hospice response to the impact of COVID-19 continues to be managed through service preparedness, resilience and response structures and processes. Command and control structures and processes enable the hospice to respond to the impact of the COVID19 pandemic.

We’re regularly reviewing our response as the situation evolves. Please find the latest information and guidance below.

Updated visitor information – May 2023

In our efforts to manage the increasing number of respiratory infections in the hospice and community, we would like to remind visitors of our current visiting guidance.

Visiting the hospice
Changes to our services
Guidance if you’re affected by a life-limiting illness
Guidance for staff and volunteers
Changes to our fundraising events
More information

Visiting the hospice

Visiting is allowed at St Ann’s Hospice, in a careful and covid-secure way, and in adherence to national and local guidelines in an effort to protect patients, visitors, volunteers and staff. Guidance on visiting the hospice is as follows:

Visitors

• There are no restrictions to the number of visitors a patient may have, but we do request that a maximum of 2 visitors are at the bedside at any one time.
• Anyone showing any symptoms of COVID-19 or flu-like symptoms should not visit. This is essential for infection prevention and control.
• Anyone feeling unwell, should also not visit St Ann’s.
• Patients may be accompanied where appropriate and necessary to assist their communication and/or to meet their health, care, emotional, religious, spiritual or other care needs.
• Patients and carers are not required to wear a face mask unless they have suspected or confirmed Covid-19 or another respiratory infection.
• Please adhere to the hand washing instructions at the entrances to each unit.
• Where a face-to-face visit is not practical then virtual visits will be supported and facilitated.
• If a patient is receiving end-of-life care or their condition is assessed by the responsible clinician as deteriorating and unlikely to improve in the near future (including patients with COVID-19), the senior clinician and Ward Manager/Nurse in Charge will assess the individual needs of the patient and family, and where possible with the input of the patient.

Your health, safety and wellbeing, that of our patients, communities and individuals and teams across the hospice remain our absolute priority. For more information on the steps that you can take to reduce the risk of catching or spreading coronavirus please visit https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

We will continue to monitor the situation and update accordingly via our website and social media channels.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding at this challenging time.

Testing for visitors

Visitors to the hospice will no longer need to test before their arrival, but they will be asked to take necessary precautions to keep themselves and loved ones safe, in line with guidance for the general population.

If you have coronavirus symptoms

Anyone showing any symptoms of COVID-19 should not visit. This is essential for infection prevention and control.

While visiting the hospice

Patients and carers are not required to wear a face mask unless they have suspected or confirmed Covid-19 or another respiratory infection.

During your visit, we ask that you:

• Regularly wash your hands. There are hand sanitiser dispensers around the hospice you can use.

There will be lots of useful signage and staff are here to help should you have any queries, and we do ask that you please follow the guidelines as they are here to ensure your safety.

 

Changes to our services

The Being You Centre

The Being You Centre at Heald Green and Little Hulton now offer services face to face, online and over the phone.

When people need it, we can also see people safely in-person at our outpatients unit in Heald Green.

Find out more about The Being You Centre.

Coffee shops

Our café at Heald Green is currently closed. Little Hulton cafe is now open to anyone visiting patients between 11am and 2pm.

An out of hours visitor kitchen is available at Heald Green and Little Hulton for use when the cafe is closed, which will be operated on an ‘honesty box’ principle.

Shopping with St Ann’s

All of our charity shops are currently open.

For more information, please visit www.sah.org.uk/shop or email tradingadmin@sah.org.uk

Shop online

You can also shop online with our shops on eBay and Amazon, from clothes to accessories, to collectables and more. All our items will be safely packaged and shipped directly to your door.

It’s a quick and easy way to support St Ann’s, whilst also grabbing yourself a bargain. Click to shop with either eBay or Amazon. 

Our lottery

Our lottery is continuing as normal. We will publish the weekly results on our website as normal, and you can still join our lottery online.

We don’t have any lottery representatives promoting our lottery in person at any venues or door to door. Find out more on our lottery website.

If you believe you’ve been visited by a bogus caller claiming to be a representative of St Ann’s Hospice, please contact your local police immediately. Please let us know on 0161 498 3642 or lottery@sah.org.uk.

Bereavement support

Losing a loved one is extremely difficult for many reasons. For some of us, this has been made even harder during the coronavirus pandemic. We’ve gathered together some resources to help support you, and others, through grief during difficult times.

Guidance if you’re affected by a life-limiting illness

If you’re living with a life-limiting illness, or a family member or friend is, you may be worried about coronavirus. Some people living with a life-limiting illness may be at higher risk of experiencing more serious complications from coronavirus.

Here’s some information that you might find helpful:

Advice for people with a life-limiting illness (Marie Curie)

Advice for people with cancer (One Cancer Voice)

Advice for people with heart or circulatory disease (British Heart Foundation)

Guidance for staff and volunteers

It’s extremely important that we all take steps to protect the wellbeing of our patients, visitors and our workforce.

We’re following Public Health England (PHE) guidance and advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO). We also get advice from our Infection Control Lead at Manchester Foundation Trust (MFT).

Volunteering

Most of our volunteer roles at both hospices have been reinstated. We’d like to thank all our volunteers who have given their time, hard work and commitment to supporting the hospice.

You can view our volunteer opportunities here.

Changes to our fundraising events

We’re committed to the well-being of all our supporters, staff, and volunteers.

Following government guidance, we had to make the difficult decision to postpone many of our fundraising events, and some have been cancelled by the organisers.

We’ve been in touch with anyone who has signed up to our events and will be affected. If you have any concerns or would like to speak to someone in our events team, you can email events@sah.org.uk or call 0161 498 3631.

Now more than ever, your donations are important to help us continue our care. Please help support us with whatever you can.

More information

You’ll find useful information and advice on the following websites:

Public Health England
NHS UK
ACAS 
St Ann’s useful links and contacts