We have made some further significant changes to keep our patients safe as we deal with Covid-19.

This is because we are now seeing an increase in the number of seriously ill patients (who have tested positive for Covid-19) at our hospitals, which is only going to increase in the days and weeks ahead.

Therefore from today (Monday 23 March), we are:

• Postponing all routine, planned surgery (including day cases and cancer operations).
• Stopping all outpatient appointments (including endoscopy and chemotherapy). This includes both face-to-face and telephone appointments.

For those patients who need to urgently speak to a doctor on the phone, or require immediate treatment, we are setting up ‘hot clinics’ to ensure these patients get the care they need.

These measures will help us to protect our patients, including those with Covid-19, and those with other conditions. They will also enable us to help us be as prepared as possible by training additional clinical teams who are not specialists in respiratory illness.

We will keep these changes under review. They will remain in place for at least the next two weeks. During this time, we will only carry out the most urgent operations.

Postponing chemotherapy will help to protect our cancer patients as these intense drugs affect their immune system, making them more susceptible to contracting Covid-19. We are reviewing these patients to ensure no harm will come to them by delaying their treatment.

Maternity appointments are still currently going ahead as scheduled.