Information for Visitors

Visitors are an important part of the recovery process and are welcome in hospitals. Visitors can help reduce patient anxiety and stress. However, it is up to the person in hospital to decide if they want visitors, and visitors must also respect hospital policies and visiting hours.
When planning a visit, please familiarise yourself with the following visitor responsibilities and infection prevention safety measures.

• Please do not attend the hospital if you are unwell, have a temperature, or have signs and symptoms of respiratory illness. Or if you or someone you live with has tested positive for COVID in last 7 days.
• Please do not bring children who are unwell to visit.  If you bring children, make sure they are supervised at all times.
• All visitors aged 8 years and older are required to wear a mask in designated patient care and ward areas. Masks are not required in the foyer and café area of the hospital. Masks are supplied and available for all visitors. Thank you for respecting the mask requirements within a healthcare setting.
• Please ensure you use the hand sanitiser provided on entry to the Hospital and on entering a patient’s room.

A RAT test may be required by visitors when facilitating exemptions for visiting with identified risks.
 
Visiting Hours

• General Visiting Hours 12-8pm
• Maternity Visiting Hours 2-4 pm, rest period, then 7-8pm.

To facilitate a calm and healing environment for our patients, we recommend a limit of 2 visitors in the patients room at a time.

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 on the day of 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.  
• 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 on the day of 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 on the day of admission and provide the test result on admission.

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 that patients are allowed one support person (outside of normal visiting hours) and broader families will not be able to wait in the admission area with their loved one.  Our staff will support our patients and nominated support person during the admission process.