Covid-19 outbreak at Hawick hospital

Hawick Community Hospital is closed to admissions with all but essential visiting suspended due to a Covid-19 outbreak.

An NHS Borders spokesperson said: “The current visiting restrictions are in order to keep our patients and staff safe by reducing unnecessary footfall, thus helping to limit the spread of this highly transmissible virus.

"The situation will be kept under regular review with visiting restrictions being eased as soon as it is safe to do so.”

Examples of “essential visiting” include a person receiving end-of-life care, to support someone with a mental health issue, dementia, a learning disability or autism , in general situations when someone is receiving information about life-changing illness or treatments, or other similar situations where support from another person is essential for advocacy and wellbeing.