Coronavirus advice

Last updated: 2nd June 2020

Since receiving news of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, we have followed all UK Government and Public Health England guidelines and best practice to ensure everyone at the Hospice and across our other sites are protected as much as possible.

Our main priority will always be keeping our patients, their relatives, friends, our staff, volunteers and the wider community safe.

To do this, and with immediate effect, we are putting some additional measures in place.

Please note: These measures will be in place until at least Monday 15th June, but we will continue to monitor the situation and update you regularly.

Information for patients and families

Many of our normal services are being suspended, please see below for information on what services we will be delivering:

  • We will continue to operate our 31-bed Ward, but with restrictions on visitors (please see ‘Information for visitors’ below)
  • We will offer over-the-phone Counselling sessions, instead of these taking place at the Hospice.
  • We will offer over-the-phone support and advice to our Day Therapy patients, instead of bringing patients and family members into the Hospice. We’ll phone all new referrals and current patients.
  • All Lymphoedema and Outpatient appointments will be assessed by the appropriate clinician to identify individual patient’s needs and a member of staff will then call you to discuss the options.
  • We will offer over-the-phone Home Visiting service support, instead of a member of the team or a volunteer visiting you in your home.
  • Our Community Nurse Specialist team will contact you prior to visiting, and will provide advice over the phone or will visit you if required.

Information for visitors

Visiting patients on the Ward

As you will be aware the UK Government is continuing initiatives to prevent the spread of Coronavirus in the UK. They are still encouraging people to stay at home where possible and practice ‘social distancing' to help ensure that the most vulnerable people in our society are protected as much as possible from the virus. In healthcare environments restrictions to visiting remain in place, and we continue to follow these also.

We appreciate that this is very difficult for patients and their families but they remain in place to protect loved ones from the consequence of this potentially life threatening virus.

In reviewing our current restrictions to visiting at the Hospice, we have now made some adjustments to our measures.

We have introduced new visiting restrictions for patients on the inpatient ward.

For patients that have confirmed Coronavirus, or are displaying symptoms and are therefore suspected of having it, visiting is limited to one person at a time, for one visit in the last days of life. This is restricted to immediate family only. If a patient is admitted with confirmed or suspected Coronavirus from hospital or home, an immediate family member can come to the Hospice to help the patient settle in to the Ward for an hour visit, there after the above restrictions will apply.

At other times virtual visiting should be encouraged. Please see below for more information on this.

Patients that are not suspected of having Coronavirus, as they aren’t displaying any symptoms of the disease, visiting is limited to one person, for one hour per day. This this can be a different person each day, but is restricted to immediate family only.

At other times virtual visiting should be encouraged. Please see below for more information on this.

Visitors to all patients

All visitors will be asked to wear the relevant personal protective equipment (PPE) throughout their visit for their own and others safety.

You will be advised on this when you arrive, but everyone will be asked to wear a surgical face mask and gloves.

We acknowledge that these restrictions are severe and we can only apologise for any distress this causes to patients, families and friends.

We must however stress the importance of everyone adhering to these requirements to help us to keep our patients safe and also help protect the staff caring for them.

If you have any concerns, please raise these with a member of the Ward team.

Additionally, the following restrictions remain in place:

  • Those under 16, over 70, or anyone with a known underlying health problem should not come to the Hospice.

  • Anyone experiencing any symptoms of Coronavirus (e.g. high temperature, new continuous cough) or living with anyone with these symptoms must not come to the Hospice.

  • Visitors are only allowed to be in the patient's room and must not congregate in any other area of the Hospice.

  • All visitors must wash their hands on arrival and/or use the hand gels available on reception and at the entrance to the Ward.

  • All visitors must also practice the recommended safe distance of two metres between themselves, the person they are visiting, and the staff on the Ward.

Support for relatives and Virtual Visiting

We recognise that these restrictions on visiting your loved ones during this time is upsetting and may cause some distress.

We would encourage where possible that you telephone, Skype or Facetime. We have equipment available on the ward that can be utilised if the patient does not have their own device. Staff can help patients to receive video calls if required.

It would be really helpful if you spoke to a staff member and a negotiated time could be agreed to facilitate this.

This guide will show you how to make a video call using a smartphone, or receive one using your computer - or help you explain how to do so to others. We think this is a great way for you to 'visit virtually' to keep in touch with loved ones and help keep everyone safe.

We are also happy for you to email your loved one using Ward1User@loros.co.uk

This inbox will be checked twice a day; the message will be printed and personally given and/or read out to your relative. If a reply is requested we will help with this. Please remember that messages will be accessed and read by our staff, and it is not a private inbox.

If you feel that it would be helpful to receive some extra support during this challenging time, please talk to one of our ward nurses who can make a referral on your behalf to either a member of our counselling team or chaplaincy team.

Thank you for your support and understanding during a very challenging time for all of us.

Visiting the Hospice chapel and Memory Tree

We know that families and friends find comfort in coming to the Hospice to visit the chapel and/or the Memory Tree to remember their loved one.

In normal circumstances we would welcome this, and hope that this will be possible again soon. The current Coronavirus pandemic means that unfortunately we are unable to allow these visits at this time. We are trying to reduce the number of people visiting the Hospice to help keep our patients and staff safe.

We have been helping to keep families in touch with the Hospice by sending them photos of their leaf to mark special occasions and are in the process of developing a number of initiatives, to help you keep in touch as much as possible during these challenging times. We hope you understand the reason for our current restrictions and we look forward to seeing you back at the Hospice when it is safe to do so.

Visiting for meetings

Please do not visit the Hospice, or any of our sites for pre-arranged meetings. These are in the process of being cancelled, or facilitated over the phone.

Visiting for education and training events

We have made the decision to postpone all non-essential face-to-face training programmes and events. We are exploring options where possible to deliver training virtually and will communicate these options with you as soon as possible. If you have any queries relating to your booking please email lpdc@loros.co.uk

Information for people wanting to make monetary donations at the Hospice

Now, more than ever before, we need the help and support of our community so that we can continue to provide vital care to our patients, and support their friends and relatives. Please can we encourage you to make all your monetary donations online at loros.co.uk/donate

Thank you for your support.

Information for ALL visitors

In addition to the above, please do not come to the Hospice if

  • in the last 14 days you have returned from travel abroad. As of today, we are unable to specify countries carrying the greatest risk, therefore we are widening our restriction to all returning travellers.
  • you have been in contact with someone with a confirmed case of coronavirus.
  • you are concerned you have any of the symptoms.

What are the symptoms?

  • a high temperature - you feel hot to touch on your chest or back
  • a new, continuous cough - this means you've started coughing repeatedly
  • loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

If you are displaying any of these symptoms, you should stay at home for 7 days.
If you live with other people, they should stay at home for 14 days from the day the first person got symptoms.
This will help to protect us, and others in your community while you are infectious.

Please visit the NHS website for the latest information.

Information for LOROS volunteers

If you are a LOROS volunteer who is 70 years of age or over, or have an underlying health condition, please do not come into the Hospice or your site of volunteering (shop, warehouse etc.). Your Volunteer Coordinator/Manager is aware of this restriction and is not expecting to see you.

Information for fundraising event attendees

Latest published advice has strongly advised against mass public gatherings, for a period of weeks or possibly months.

While there is no end date to this advice, the position of the Government is that emergency services will not support large events.

As many of our supporters will know, the fundraising work we do helps ensure that our patients and their families can receive the care they need, free of charge, at the time they most need it. A big part of this comes from people taking part in our events and the sponsorship they raise at our large scale events.

We are currently in the process of finding alternatives for some of our upcoming LOROS events and will be updating participants about the those events concerned by the end of this week.

Please check the relevant event page for more information. We thank you for your patience and understanding at this time

We recognise how much these events mean to you; from every £1 you’ve raised in sponsorship, through to the weeks and months of training you have committed. These events and the valuable funds they raise are equally as important to the team here at LOROS.

We rely on our community to help us raise over £6 million every year.

Now more than ever before we need the help and support of our community so we can continue to provide the vital care to our patients, and support their friends and relatives.

Please bear with us for the next couple of days while we consider the impact of this latest advice and look at ways we can continue to be there for you and your family, in what are difficult and uncertain times for us all.

Thank you for your patience, support and understanding, we will be in touch with further updates as things develop.

Information about LOROS shops, accepting donated items and our collection service

We have kept our 29 shops open for as long as possible because we know how important they are to you and because they are an important source of income for us. The safety of our staff and customers is our number one priority, and we want to ensure we are making responsible decisions.

Due to the ever-changing situation with coronavirus, we’re very sad to let you know we’ll be temporarily closing all LOROS shops from the end of the day on Monday 23rd March 2020. 

Your donations of unwanted items are always vital to us – they keep our shops open – please do not leave these outside our shops as they will not be picked up. Please keep them at home until we can take them in again. Collections are also suspended at this time.

From Friday 29th May our Glenfield Warehouse will be open for your donations on the following days:

  • Friday 29th May 10am – 3pm
  • Monday 1st June 10am – 3pm
  • Wednesday 3rd June 10am – 3pm
  • Friday 5th June 10am – 3pm
At this point we can only accept:

  • clean clothes
  • bric-a-brac items
  • small electrical items
  • boxed toys and games
  • computer games and consoles.
Please do not bring anything else as we will not be able to take it.

Our Glenfield Warehouse is the ONLY LOROS location open to take your donations at the moment.
Our shops remain closed for the time being (we’ll let you know more details as soon as we can).

Our Glenfield Warehouse is located at 1 Station Road, Glenfield, Leicester LE3 8BT.

Please note: our Glenfield Warehouse will have 2 metre markers and a clear one way system marked.

We will be taking accepted items only, wearing gloves and masks, and storing items for 72 hours before sorting, as per government guidelines.

Please remember:

Stay safe, stay two metres apart to protect yourself and our colleagues

Please don’t visit if you have any symptoms of COVID-19

Please do not leave donations outside as we cannot use them and we may be reported for fly tipping.

Thanks you for your continued support and understanding.

We may be closing our shop doors, but you can still shop with us online:

  • You can continue to support our work and shop 24 hours a day, from a great selection of donated items through our eBay shop
  • Or you can simply switch to AmazonSmile and support us while to shop on Amazon.

Thank you for your loyal custom and we look forward to welcoming you back into our shops when the time is right.

Information about the LOROS Lottery

To all of our supporters who play our weekly lottery, thank you. We’re working hard to ensure that the weekly draw continues.

Your support is vital, now more than ever before! We must ensure that we continue to provide patient care and family support, during these difficult and unprecedented times. Our patients still need us.

We’re looking at ways in which we can continue to support the Hospice, as well as protect our supporters, staff, volunteers and the wider community. Therefore, we’d like to ask our players who play by cash collection, card or cheque to:

  • Post a cheque, made payable to LOROS Lotteries Limited, to LOROS Lotteries Limited, Groby Road, Leicester, LE3 9QE and enclose a note confirming your name and address

  • Pay/renew online at loros.co.uk/lottery. Select “I am an existing lottery player” and quote your lottery number if known. Online card payment options are £13, £26 or £52 per number
  • Gambling Commission rules do not permit payment by credit card for lottery, raffle and scratch card purchases.
  • Set up a direct debit at loros.co.uk/lottery. Select “I am an existing lottery player” and quote your lottery number if known, or call the Lottery team to set up your direct debit over the phone
In these challenging times, paying £13, £26 or £52 for each number by card or cheque, will help us keep our administration costs to a minimum.

Please note, the Lottery office will remain open, but with limited staff, during this time of uncertainty. If we are forced to close, then the answerphone will be on for messages to be left. These messages will be picked up periodically.

Any changes to our opening hours will be communicated via our website. You can e-mail us at lottery@loros.co.uk, this will also be monitored during office hours.

Thank you for your ongoing support in these difficult times. We endeavour to make informed decisions based on official guidance and advice given by the Government. It is our priority to continue to provide a service, and keep us all safe. Please do not hesitate to contact the Lottery team if you have any queries.

On behalf of our patients, their families and carers, thank you so much for being part of something amazing.

For more information

It is important that we take all reasonable steps to protect those using our services, as well as those working and volunteering across all of our sites. For further information on coronavirus, please visit:
The gov.uk website
The NHS website

We will continue to monitor the situation daily and will always put the safety of our patients, their relatives, friends, our staff, volunteers and the wider community first.