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Recommended Visiting Times

12.00pm (midday) - 2.00 pm and 4.00 pm – 7.00 pm

Please report to the reception desk at the visitor entrance to Intensive Care. Reception staff will be able to assist you, they will notify your relatives nurse that you are here. If the reception team are not at the front desk, please use the intercom at the door of the unit. The desk is manned from 7.00 am until 7.00 pm.

If the unit is very busy, there may be a delay in answering the intercom. Please bear with us, and if no-one answers after a few minutes, ring again. 

Infection Control

Critically ill patients are especially vulnerable to catching infections. Please remember to use alcohol gel on your hands when entering or leaving the Unit, to assist with infection control.  The gel is available at the entrance to both areas.

Visiting Guidance

Visiting patients on Intensive Care is important for both relatives and patients.

We recommend the following when planning to visit a relative on ICU:

• Visitors should be immediate family or very close friends.
• Keep visits short to prevent patients or visitors from becoming exhausted.
• Only two visitors at the bedside at any one time due to space restrictions.
• Children are welcome to visit, though please consider the potential to cause them distress and upset, as the unit is a busy and overwhelming place.
• It may be necessary to interrupt your visit and ask you to leave your relative’s bedside temporarily while we carry out personal care, position changes or attend to other clinical needs.
• Visiting is not permitted during medical ward rounds in order to maintain patient confidentiality.
• Please do not bring hot drinks and food onto the unit.
• Please switch mobile phones off before entering the unit.

Mobile Telephones 

 We have a duty to maintain the confidentiality of our patients. The use of mobile phones by visitors is not permitted on the ICU. Please do not take photographs or videos. You may use your phone in the waiting room, or outside in the courtyard area, where the signal is often much better.

Communication with the ICU

You may telephone to ask about your relative at any time. Please try to nominate one person to do this, who can then pass on information to others.  This reduces the number of telephone calls, and hence interruptions, for the team caring for your relative.  The nurse will set up a password to enable telephone updates with the nominated next of kin.

During the day, we try to provide availability of a senior member of the medical team to speak to relatives who require a detailed update. Please ask the nurse at the bedside if you would like to talk to the senior doctor during this time, and we will do our best to ensure it happens. We hope you understand that due to clinical commitments, this may not always be possible.