Visitor Restrictions
Visitor Restrictions are currently in place at all St. Vincent Private Hospital Melbourne sites.  We encourage all visitors to adhere to the following COVID-19 safety measures:

• Please do not attend the hospital:
  • if you are unwell, have a temperature, or any signs of respiratory illness,
  • if you have tested positive for COVID-19 within the last 7 days,
  • if you are living with an active COVID-19 positive person, or
  • if you have been identified as a close contact of a COVID-19 case within the last 7 day’s
• Masks are still required in healthcare settings. All visitors over the age of 8 years are required to wear a mask. Please wear a mask at all times whilst in the hospital, including the time spent in a patients’ room.
• A RAT test may be required for visitors with a mask exemption or other identified risk.
• Please ensure you use the hand sanitiser provided on entry to the hospital and before entering a patients’ room.

Visiting Hours
Patients may have 2 visitors a day, during visiting hours.
General Visiting hours are from 2pm – 7pm
Maternity Visiting hours are from 2-4pm, and then 7-8pm

Before coming to hospital 

Please contact your treating specialist before coming to hospital, if:  

• You have been diagnosed with COVID-19 following your last consultation within the four weeks prior to your planned admission
• You are living with an active COVID-19 case or you have been identified as a close contact of a COVID-19 case within the 7 days prior to your planned admission 
• You have been tested for COVID-19 and are waiting to receive the results (except for tests due to surveillance testing obligations) 
• You have signs and symptoms of respiratory illness such as fever (37.5 or above), cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, loss of smell or taste, runny nose, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting or fatigue. 

Prior to arrival to the Hospital: 

• Please ensure you have completed a RAT 24hrs prior to your admission.  Please bring evidence of the negative RAT result (a photo on your mobile phone, which will be dated, if you are able).
• When you arrive to the Hospital, surgical face masks will be available.  Please stop at the entrance to put a face mask on to enter the Hospital.
• Our reception team will assist with your admission, check all of your details and provide you with directions for your admission to the Hospital. 

Prior to your admission - COVID testing requirements 

All patients are required to conduct a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) at home in the 24-hours prior to your admission to hospital. When you arrive for your admission you will be asked to provide evidence of your test result (a photo on your mobile phone and date will suffice). If you are unable to provide evidence of a negative test, you will be required to have a COVID test on admission. Any carer / paediatric parent / guardian / partner or support person staying for the duration of the patient stay will also be required to undertake a RAT test in the 24-hours prior to admission and provide the test result on admission.

For any patient booked for admission to Intensive Care Unit, we ask for you to have a COVID-19 PCR test 48-72 hours prior to your admission, and isolate at home after your test to reduce the risk of acquiring COVID-19.  Your safety is our priority.

If you have recovered from COVID-19, you aren’t required to get tested or isolate if you are re-exposed to a case within the 5 weeks after testing positive.
 
Any patient that returns a positive RAT result on arrival will be advised to go home and isolate (this may differ for Maternity patients), and to report their Rapid Antigen Test result to Reporting your result | Coronavirus Victoria.
  
 

Accompanying Patients on Admission:

Due to our current visitor restrictions, we advise our support persons and families that bring patients in for admission that they will not be able to wait in the admission area with their loved one.  Our staff will support our patients during the admission process.

We do allow exceptions for support persons to accompany patients on admission (outside of visiting hours 2pm-7pm) for reasons outlined below:

• parent, guardian or temporary carer of a patient aged under 18 years
• partner or support person of a pregnant woman, whose status as a patient relates to their pregnancy 
• carer of a patient with a disability
• Nominated Person of a patient who is in hospital to receive care for a mental illness as defined under the Mental Health Act 
• providing interpreter language support 
• providing essential wellbeing support (including mental health support and support for people living with dementia) 
• providing support to a patient whose medical condition is life threatening  
• providing end-of-life support for a patient 
• learning to support a patient’s care once they are discharged from hospital  
• accompanying a patient to an outpatient appointment (if unable to use telehealth)  **please check requirements with your specialist’s rooms.

Please speak to our team for guidance on any exemptions to the visiting restrictions.