Patients and visitors : Highclere Ward

Protected mealtimes

Mealtimes and nutrition are an important part of recovery and rehabilitation and therefore, where a patient does not need support at mealtimes, we would encourage our patients to have an uninterrupted mealtime.

We encourage family and friends to visit their loved ones whilst they are in hospital.

We are flexible about visiting and will do everything we can to help you visit at a time that is convenient to you and the patient.

Therefore, we don't have fixed visiting hours but we would generally ask that you to come in between 10am and 8pm.

If this isn’t suitable, please talk to us so that we can make arrangements to avoid disturbing other patients

Please bear in mind that while in hospital your family member or friend may be receiving specific treatment or have a personal care plan in place which they need to follow. Part of any patient’s recovery is also the ability to receive good nutrition and sleep.

Please talk to your loved one and/or ward staff team when arranging your visit so that you arrive at a time that fits around treatment and meal times. 

Very occasionally, a patient's wishes regarding visiting may not be the same as the person wishing to visit. In this case, we will always give priority to the patient in our care.

Who can visit?

Patients are welcome to have two visitors at a time. However, if you would prefer to bring additional family or friends to the visit, please speak to us in advance as we may be able to accommodate this in a day room (depending on availability), or outside in the garden, weather permitting.

We recommend not bringing children under 12 to visit but again, please speak to the ward team.

If we have a suspected or confirmed infection on the ward, we will let you know and if you would still like to visit, we will ask you to wear a face mask and follow hand hygiene and other precautions where indicated. 

However, in order to protect all our patients, if you have had an infectious illness up to two days prior to your visit e.g. diarrhoea, vomiting, rashes, a heavy cold, cough or COVID/ flu, we would ask you to please rearrange your visit. In this case, please do ask us about the option of having phone or video contact.

• Learn more about Infection Prevention and Control