Visiting

Hospital visiting

Adult inpatient areas

All patients will be allowed 1 nominated visitor only, for an hour each day, pre-arranged prior to the visit.
Visitors must not visit if they have been:

• Experiencing any of the symptoms associated with possible COVID-19;
• Feeling unwell;
• Visitors must be directed to use the appropriate hand hygiene facilities before and after visiting;
• Appropriate PPE, specifically a surgical facemask, should be worn in areas where staff are required to wear a mask;
• Prior to visiting visitors will be expected to use the public toilet facilities within the hospital as these will not be available on the ward;
• Visiting is to be between 14:00 and 20:00. Outside of these hours it is to be at the discretion of the Ward Leader / Unit Manager, for example: in order that a relative can be present for the breaking of bad news or where the patient has complex needs and support is being provided.

Exceptional Circumstances

Patients at End of Life

The patient is not required to be on end of life care plan (blue book) to allow these circumstances to be applied.

There may be many situations where it is suspected the patient may be dying, and therefore they are able to have the end of life visiting plan enacted. The blue book should not be commenced solely to facilitate visiting, nor should visiting be restricted because the blue book is not in place.

• Patients who are at the end of their life may have increased visiting with no restriction on the number of visitors or length of time of visit at the discretion of the Ward Leader / Unit Manager.

Outpatients

Patients attending for an adult outpatient appointment can be accompanied by 1 person.

Emergency Department

Can be accompanied by 1 person (both adults and children). In exceptional circumstances the Unit Manager can approve more.

Critical Care

• There will be a maximum of 2 nominated visitors only for regular visiting;
• Exceptional circumstances for end of life, 4 visitors allowed ideally in pairs – for review by Clinical Matron / Head of Nursing / Care Group Senior Team;
• Each visit will be a maximum of 1 hour, once a day, ideally pre-booked and documented on the visitor logs present at the north and south side;
• There is a limit to the number of visitors at any one time – 1 set of visitors each for the 6-bedded areas and 4-bedded areas. 2 sets of visitors permitted on the north side in view of cubicles;
• Visitors are not to use the previous visiting room / red staff room;
• All visits will be logged on the patients Carevue.

All patients on critical care are either receiving life-sustaining treatments or are recovering from a serious illness or high-risk major surgery. They therefore all meet the criteria for ‘exceptional circumstances,’ in terms of receiving visitors outside of the End-of-Life setting. All patients will be reviewed daily and if exceptional circumstances for visiting apply the decision will be documented on the whiteboard and the decision communicated to the family.

Paediatrics

Inpatient wards:

• Both parents are allowed open visiting;

Gwithian outpatient unit

• Child can be accompanied by both parents to outpatients’ appointments.

Maternity

Delivery Suite and Birth Centre

2 partners at any one time. (No children without prior agreement with matron or maternity manager on-call)

Wheal Rose

1 partner at any time and 1 other visitor at any one time, between 10:00 – 22:00; (No children without prior agreement with matron or maternity manager on-call)

Wheal Fortune

1 partner between 08:00 and 20:00 and 1 other visitor between 14:00 and 20:00 (No children without prior agreement with matron or maternity manager on-call)

All visitors to be asked to wash their hands on entry and exit from the wards

Visitors must not visit if they have been:

• Experiencing any of the symptoms associated with possible COVID-19;
• Feeling unwell, tummy upset or any other infection where it may be passed on to parent or baby.

For outpatient appointments, including scans, the patient can be accompanied by 1 other person.

Neonatal Unit

• Visitors of the parents’ choice are welcome to visit between 2pm to 7pm daily, accompanied by a parent;
• Limit the number of people at the cot side to 2 people at a time; that is, one parent and one visitor;
• Explain to your family and friends that they may only visit with you and that we are unable to give them any information about your baby’s condition;
• Brothers and sisters of babies are very welcome to visit and should be encouraged to gently touch their new baby;
• Do not bring children into the nursery if they have a cough, cold, tummy upset or other infections due to the risk of passing it on to babies in the nursery and same rules applies to you and your visitors.

• Wash or clean your hands before and after visiting the hospital and always after using the toilet.
• Use soap and water to wash your hands and make sure you wash and dry them thoroughly. There are handwash sinks at the entrance to all of our wards.
• There are also hand-gel stations at the entrances to our hospitals.
• Please don’t sit on your friend/family member’s bed, or on other patients’ beds.
• If you have symptoms such as flu, diarrhoea or vomiting or infections such as chicken pox, please do not visit because you could easily infect someone else.
• We don’t recommend that young children visit, please talk to the nurse in charge beforehand if you’d like them to.

If anything to do with infection prevention is worrying you, feel free to challenge staff, they won’t mind. You can also always speak to a senior member of staff. Our infection prevention team also provides a 24-hour advice and guidance service.

Find out more about how we work to prevent infection on our quality and safety standards page.

For some top tips on washing your hands well see this BBC video

The chairs are operated by a £1 coin and they do not accept cards; however there is a cashpoint and a shop in the foyer there – there is also a receptionist there who can usually let a wheelchair out for you.

These wheelchairs are push only and are not able to be self-operated. Porters are available to push patients to their appointments.