Visiting a loved one in hospital is extremely important, both for patients and those visiting. It can play a vital role in keeping patients motivated, helping them with rehab, reducing deterioration and improving outcomes.
We actively encourage visiting and our teams will support patients to receive visits from people they want to see, in a safe way.
Our visiting times for each ward can be viewed below.
Very occasionally there might be exceptional circumstances where, despite precautions put in place, an in-person visit may not be possible. For example, this could be due to a patient having an infectious respiratory illness.
Visiting policy
It is essential for infection prevention and control that you do not visit if you:
- Have tested positive for COVID-19.
- Are showing symptoms of COVID-19.
- Are showing symptoms of flu or have flu-like symptoms.
- Have had a case of diarrhoea or vomiting in the past 48 hours.
This will help to protect our vulnerable patients and keep our staff safe.
If you are unable to attend in person due to the above factors or any other reason, please let us know. Our teams will support you with alternative arrangements, for example a video call.
We may need to change our visitor policy at short notice. If we do need to restrict visiting for any reason, we will review this on an ongoing basis with the aim of lifting restrictions as soon as we can.
Face masks
We are following national guidance on face masks.
Each NHS trust completes their own risk assessment based on national and local risks, such as infections rates and the fact our hospital benefits from single inpatient bedrooms.
With consideration of the above, our guidance is that patients and visitors do not need to wear a mask unless they choose to.
The exception to this is cystic fibrosis patients, who are required to wear a mask in public areas, when not in their room.
Visitor guidelines
- Please wear a surgical mask when in a patient's bedroom if requested to do so.
- Please wash your hands on entering and leaving the ward and use alcohol gel regularly.
- There may be times when you also need to wear enhanced personal protective equipment (PPE), including a visor, gloves and apron. You will be advised and helped by a member of staff if this is the case.