THE husband of a cancer patient who is receiving palliative care at East Lothian Community Hospital has spoken of his anguish as nursing staff stopped him visiting her due to fears over coronavirus.

Bill Hudson had been allowed to make brief 20-minute visits to see his wife Carol when she was transferred to the hospital from a hospice towards the end of February.

However, he has now been told he cannot see her, despite having invested in his own personal protective equipment (PPE).

Carol, 55, from Gullane, has had cancer for six years and is receiving care for a second inoperable tumour at the hospital.

Husband Bill fears the mother of two, who worked as a physiotherapist assistant at the former Roodlands Hospital in Haddington, which was replaced by the new community hospital, will now face her final weeks alone.

Earlier, Bill, a production journalist, had called for testing to be made available to families of those in hospital so they could visit if they were not infected with the virus.

Now he says he is devastated that contact with Carol has been stopped completely.

He is urging health chiefs to find a way to let him visit his wife, who is also isolated from her sons.

He said: “I have appealed to those at the top of the hospital to find a way to allow next of kin visits for people like us.

“I haven’t been able to see Carol since Monday last week and when I tried to see her at the weekend the nurse came out to say it was not allowed.

"It is very worrying for all of us and distressing. Carol has her phone but sometimes she is too exhausted to sustain a conversation or the charge runs out.

“The staff at the hospital do what they can but obviously there is so much going on right now.

“We just don’t know when we will see Carol again.”

Carol, who has two sons, Kieran, 23, and Connor, 25, has raised hundreds of pounds for Maggie’s Centres despite her condition over the last few years by taking part in fundraising Culture Crawls in Edinburgh.

When she took part in the sponsored event two years ago, she spoke of her drive to support Maggie’s, which had helped her when she was diagnosed with her tumours, despite her condition.

Speaking about her diagnosis at the time, Carol told the Courier: “You just have to get on with it.

“There are plenty of other people who are going through awful things

"You get on with it and there are plenty of reasons to be getting up each day and be smiling.”

Dr Tracey Gillies, medical director, NHS Lothian said: “We know this will be a very difficult time for the patient and their family and we would wish to make every effort to minimise any distress.

"NHS Lothian has suspended patient visiting to limit the spread of coronavirus and to protect vulnerable patients, as well as staff.

"Visiting does take place in specific circumstances, including for patients receiving end-of-life care, with arrangements assessed on individual patient needs.

“Even within these specific circumstances, however, there may be times, for important medical reasons, why visiting is temporarily not allowed.

"Unfortunately, we cannot comment on individual cases without patient consent and we would urge the family member to contact the senior charge nurse at the hospital to discuss their concerns.”