Visiting

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

As part of the hospital redevelopment works, the old main entrance doorway is now permanently closed. Visitors can access the hospital through the new main entrance off Clarkson Street.

Guidelines

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

• Visitors must be restricted to the child’s main carer plus two other people.
• 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, Parkside Restaurant or the Picnic Cafe in the main entrance.

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
There are two shops on the long corridor near the X-Ray department which sell a range of items including toys, cards, gifts, newspapers, magazines, drinks and sweets.

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.