Patients and their families are benefiting from more flexible visiting arrangements in 500 wards across the country, new analysis shows today.

Health boards have moved to allow relatives, friends and carers to be with their loved in the hospital when it suits them following changes introduced by the Scottish Government last year.

Health Secretary Alex Neil has hailed the figures as “substantial progress” but urged boards to maintain the pace to ensure more patients are able to see visitors at times that suit them.

The new system is already delivering benefits, including helping patients feel less lonely and separated from relatives and friends because visits can be spread throughout the day.

For example, NHS Tayside’s approach to flexible visiting has seen patients name the visitors they wish to have 24 hour access.

Health Secretary Alex Neil said:

“While patient care will always be the top priority for our NHS we must ensure that we do everything we can to make any hospital stay better.

“Being away from loved ones can be difficult – especially when separation is as a result of ill health.

“That is why it is so important that our NHS does more to allow family, friends and carers be more involved with the care their loved one receives in hospital.

“The improvements that health boards have made represent substantial progress and it is good news for patients, their families, friends and carers when visiting is made more flexible. It shows that positive changes are possible when we focus on what matters most to people and support our staff to develop and test new ways to ensure this happens.

“I am very encouraged to hear that staff, the true heart of our NHS, support this better approach to improving the care experience for people while in hospital.

“But I want to see boards across Scotland maintain the pace and momentum of this change so that even more wards are operating the kind of flexible approach to visiting that is so obviously benefiting patients where it has been introduced.

“The changes have also had a positive impact on visitors who rely on local transport to get to the hospital as they are no longer confined to set times and in some cases the open visiting has also eased parking difficulties on site.”

Staff in NHS Dumfries & Galloway commented that it was “helpful to be able to spend more time with relatives throughout the day.”

More flexible visiting hours at Scottish hospitals were tested in January 2013 as part of a national approach to support improvements in care experience across Scotland.

All Boards in Scotland are being supported to enable friends and family to visit patients at more convenient times through the national Person-Centred Health and Care Collaborative improvement programme led by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.