Visiting our hospitals

On this page…

Visiting times

Family members, carers and friends can visit adult inpatients between 10am and 8pm, seven days a week, with a maximum of two visitors at a time.

There are some exceptions to these visiting hours, to ensure the clinical safety of some patients as well as staff. For patients in the departments below, only one visitor may accompany a patient to assist with consent and the visiting hours may be different. This is due to increased levels of patient care required and stricter infection control rules in place.

Catheter lab
Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
Day surgery unit (DSU)
Endoscopy
Stroke unit (12pm-8pm)
Emergency department (ED) at Watford
Urgent treatment centre (UTC) at Watford and Hemel
Ambulatory care unit (ACU) at Watford
Clinical decisions unit (CDU) at Watford

Wards may be subject to closure at short notice due to infection control measures, so please keep in close contact with the ward before visiting.

Exceptional circumstances

More flexible visiting will be allowed, under the guidance and support of the nurse in charge, in the following exceptional circumstances:

The patient is receiving end of life care.
The patient is in our Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
The patient has a mental health issue, where not having a family member present would cause distress to the patient.
You are supporting a family member or friend as an unpaid carer, who may need support with communication, their mental health or wellbeing, personal care and feeding. If you're supporting a family member or friend, find out more about how we can help.
A patient has dementia, delirium, a learning disability or autism where not having a family member present would cause distress to the patient.

The visiting arrangements, including the number of visitors, will be subject to discussion and agreement with the nurse in charge taking in to account the safety of others.

The final decision regarding visiting will always be at the discretion of the nurse in charge.

Visiting for children and babies

For our paediatrics wards and departments, parents, carers and other close family members are able to visit freely throughout the day or night with a maximum of two visitors by a child’s bedside.

Siblings are welcome onto wards to visit between 3pm-8pm, but are discouraged from entering any clinical area if they are unwell.

Maternity visiting

Our maternity areas have different rules for visiting. Please check the latest guidance.

View details about visiting guidance for maternity

Visiting guidance

If you are coming to visit:

Clean your hands when entering and leaving wards
Wear a surgical face mask in areas where display banners or staff ask you to

Do not visit if you have:

Fever or cold like symptoms
Diarrhoea or vomiting
A rash

You need to wait 48 hours after your symptoms clear before visiting.

Please avoid visiting at meal times

Please do not visit the wards during lunch and dinner times, unless you are supporting the patient with their meal.

Our wards have different meal times, please contact the ward in advance to check or see the poster at the entrance to the ward.

Please don't bring flowers into the hospital

As lovely as flowers are, we'd encourage you to leave the flowers until your loved one returns home. Our clinical areas are challenged for storage and full of equipment. Vases of flowers can get in the way of patient care delivery and there is a risk of spillage over equipment.

So, sadly, there is no appropriate place to safely display flowers or plants at the bedside.