TY - JOUR T1 - Patient safety and hospital visiting at the end of life during COVID-19 restrictions in Aotearoa New Zealand: a qualitative study JF - BMJ Quality & Safety JO - BMJ Qual Saf DO - 10.1136/bmjqs-2022-015471 SP - bmjqs-2022-015471 AU - Aileen Collier AU - Deborah Balmer AU - Eileen Gilder AU - Rachael Parke Y1 - 2023/02/14 UR - http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/early/2023/02/13/bmjqs-2022-015471.abstract N2 - Background Visiting restrictions were enacted in Aotearoa New Zealand to reduce transmission of COVID-19 and protect the healthcare system. This research aimed to investigate the experiences of families and clinicians of hospital visiting for people with palliative and end-of-life care needs during restrictions.Methods Semistructured interviews were completed between March and October 2021 with family members and clinicians who had personally experienced enactment of visiting restrictions during pandemic restrictions. A critical realist ontology was used to approach data analysis, sorting and coding to generate themes.Results Twenty-seven participants were interviewed, 13 being families who had experienced bereavement of a family member during the restrictions: seven nurses or physicians and seven being non-bereaved family members. Four themes were generated: patient safety—(re)defining the ‘Visitor’; the primacy of SARS-CoV-2—patient safety and negotiating risk; dying alone: enduring harms; and agency, strategies and workarounds.Conclusion Visitor rights and visitor policy at the end of life require greater protection during a pandemic. Transparent, coherent, publicly available evidence-based guidelines that key stakeholders, including patients, families and ethicists, are included in producing, are urgently required. We want to avert a legacy of disenfranchised grief in future pandemics.No data are available. ER -