Plea to continue wearing masks at QA Hospital in Portsmouth to keep staff and patients safe
PATIENTS, visitors and staff in Portsmouth hospitals will still be asked to wear face masks going forward, despite a change in government rules.
Chief nurse for Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU) Liz Rix has issued a plea to anyone stepping inside Queen Alexandra and St Mary’s Hospital to help protect patients and staff against Covid-19.
She said: ‘In this hospital and in all hospitals we will still be asking you to wear a mask. We will be asking you to wear a mask because we want to protect our patients, we want to protect their families, we want to protect our staff and their loved ones.
‘So the simple message is nothing changes. We still need everyone to think hands, face, space.’
It comes as the government announced face masks will no longer be a legal requirement as of January 27. This includes secondary school classrooms and communal areas.
however London Mayor Sadiq Khan confirmed masks will remain mandatory on all TfL services including the Tube and some retailers such as Sainsburys will ask staff and customers to continue wearing them.
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And the government ‘recommends’ that people wear face coverings in enclosed or private spaces, but this will be down to personal judgement.
Speaking in the House of Commons last week prime minister Boris Johnson said: ‘In the country at large we will continue to suggest the use of face coverings in enclosed or crowded spaces, particularly when you come into contact with people you don’t normally meet, but we will trust the judgment of the British people and no longer criminalise anyone who chooses not to wear one.’