Patients who are admitted to Macclesfield Hospital for elective surgery procedures will now have greater peace of mind due to new safety measures which have been brought into play this week.

Before the Coronavirus outbreak, the orthopaedic ward admitted both elective and emergency patients who required urgent and non-urgent care.

New Coronavirus regulations now state that all patients attending elective surgery must isolate prior to admission.

The reconfiguration of the orthopaedics department will ensure that COVID-19 negative patients being admitted for elective surgery are separated from those admitted via the emergency department whose COVID-19 status is still to be determined.

The newly configurated wards, known as Ward 10 and Ward 10A are colour coded green and yellow. Ward 10 (elective) will be a green area where patients will be required to isolate for 14 days prior to admission to ensure they are COVID-19 negative. Ward 10A (trauma) has been designated as a yellow area as patients are awaiting their COVID-19 swab results.

Both wards operate via separate entrances and all staff are allocated an area at the start of each shift. Staff are not able to move from a yellow area to a green area during their shift, reducing the potential transmission risks and improving our infection prevention and control measures.

Dr John Hunter, Medical Director at East Cheshire NHS Trust said, "As we reintroduce our elective programme, which was put on hold as a result of the pandemic, we are reassuring patients that it is safe to come in for scheduled surgery.

"This welcome investment in our orthopaedics wards will allow us to re-commence the provision of high quality planned orthopaedic care to our patients in a safe environment."

Additional measures in place to enable greater peace of mind for anyone entering the hospital include:

• All elective patients are now being asked to wait in their car on the day of surgery whilst a member of staff comes out to greet them and undergo the COVID-19 screening questions.

• For ease, the trust has allocated two car parking spaces outside the orthopaedic entrance off Fieldbank Road, which have been clearly marked in green for anyone coming for elective surgery.