Visiting

Changes to visiting: COVID-19 outbreak

To protect our patients and staff we are restricting visitors at Sheffield Children’s at all sites. The restrictions follow COVID-19 national guidance and reflect the approach taken by NHS organisations across the country. 

Please help us to keep your family members safe.

Visitors must not attend any of our sites if they feel unwell or have flu like symptoms. To keep everyone safe, there is a restriction of one visitor/parent per child for appointments and ward stays.

Update: 26 March 2020

Sheffield Children’s is updating the visitor restrictions at all sites in line with national guidance. These restrictions start from 8am 27 March.

Patients are now limited to one visitor – a parent or appropriate adult – during their stay. Please speak to your nurse if you have any questions.

We ask that this is the same visitor each time when possible.

We appreciate this may be frustrating for you but these measures have been put in place after national guidance has been issued to help keep our patients and staff safe.

Thank you for your patience and understanding at this time.

Information about when you can visit the hospital and what to do when you’re here.

Find out more about our wards, including contact numbers and facilities.

Main entrance

Visitors can access the hospital through the main entrance off Clarkson Street. Level access is available through the drop-off area and lifts can be found in the undercroft parking area.

Guidelines

We aim to keep infection rates as low as possible at Sheffield Children’s Hospital and therefore have some guidelines for visitors.

• Children under five will not be able to visit patients without the agreement of the nurse in charge of the ward. This is because they are at greater risk of catching and spreading infection.

Limits on visiting

The main reason we place limits on visiting is to minimise the risk of infection to the children. Reducing the number of people coming onto wards will go a long way to helping with this.

Reducing the number of people around each bed will also improve the medical and nursing staff access to patients and will reduce noise levels.

Visiting times

Visiting times are generally flexible, however we request that visiting should end by 9pm to allow younger children to rest.

Flexibility

We try to be flexible in exceptional circumstances but these rules are for the benefit of all. We ask that the child’s main carer takes responsibility for co-ordinating visits from friends and family. Please plan in advance with your relatives and friends, alternating days or visiting at different times. Additional visitors can wait in parent rooms, the hospital main entrance or in the Parkside Restaurant.

What else to be aware of

Please remember to use the handwash gel prior to entering the ward (the gel is situated on the wall in a dispenser by the door to each ward and in the bed area).

If you or family have a cold please consider visiting another day.

Visitor facilities

Refreshments
We have a cafe in the main entrance offering a selection of snacks and refreshments, a restaurant and diner on the second floor which serves hot and cold meals and vending machines around the hospital.

The Parkside Restaurant is near the blue lifts. Daily opening times are:

• breakfast – 8-11.30am
• lunch – 12noon-2.30pm
• tea – 3.30-7pm

There is also a coffee cart in the hospital main entrance serving hot and cold drinks and snacks.

Shops
The Friends of the Children’s Hospital shop is on the long corridor near the X-Ray department and sells a range of items including toys, cards, gifts and balloons.

A Co-op is across the road from the hospital on the corner of Clarkson Street and Glossop Road.

Telephones
Public telephones are available at various points in the public corridors throughout the hospital. Please remember to bring sufficient change for telephones.

Mobile phones can be used throughout the Trust with the exception of the Paediatric Critical Care Unit and theatres. Please keep your phone silent if possible. Please do not take photographs without getting permission from the person you are photographing.