Visiting hours are set to be reduced at New Cross Hospital by an hour a day, it was revealed today.

Under changes set to come into force tomorrow people will be able to visit their loved ones for half an hour less during both afternoons and evenings.

Hospital bosses say the move is to free up staff time and is being brought in after the introduction of restricted visiting hours during the norovirus outbreak earlier this year which it says worked well.

Currently the visiting hours are between 2.30pm and 4.30pm in the afternoon and 6.30pm and 8pm in the evening. The new times will see visitors allowed between 2.30pm and 4pm and 7pm and 8pm.

Bosses do say though that visiting is always at the discretion of the ward sister and individual circumstances will always be taken into account such as when visitors have travelled a long distance or patients are extremely ill.

David Loughton, chief executive of The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals Trust  which runs New Cross Hospital said: “We recognise that visiting a person in hospital plays a vital part in aiding their recovery and care.

“During the recent norovirus outbreak, we amended our visiting times to limit the spread of the virus and improve patient and visitor safety.

“This showed a significant improvement in terms of staff time freed up to care for patients. Patients were able to rest more and staff had more time to prepare for and support mealtimes.”

Managers at the hospital say the new policy has be drawn up with the help of Wolverhampton Local Involvement Network (LINk) which represents patients.

John Mellor, chairman of the Wolverhampton Local Involvement Network said: “We have worked with the hospital trust to review and amend their proposed visiting policy.”

The policy includes a new visitors’ charter to ensure visitors know what they can expect of the trust.