What patients can do to help us fight infection

• Please bring your own toiletries with you to hospital and only use your own. Please do not share your toiletries with other patients or leave them in communal areas
• Liquid soap is preferred to bar soap as it is less likely to become contaminated
• Please bring only essential items into hospital, to avoid the bed space becoming cluttered and difficult to clean
• Please make sure you wear shoes or slippers when you get out of bed and please remove footwear when you get back onto or into bed
• Please do not sit on other patients' beds
• Ask a nurse if you need any help to wash your hands after using the toilet/commode or before meals
• You have the right to ask any member of hospital staff if they have cleaned their hands, or any relevant items of equipment, before they attend to you. Please speak to a relevant member of staff if you feel uncomfortable asking this
• If you have any concerns whatsoever about cleanliness or tidiness, please tell us by speaking to the nurse in charge
• Sometimes you may be asked to move to a different bed or ward, or you may be asked not to visit other patients in the ward or other wards. This is to help control the spread of infection

What visitors can do to help us fight infection

• We know that hand washing/cleaning is the single most important measure we can all take to prevent the spread of infection in hospitals. Therefore, when you are visiting, please:
• clean your hands when you enter the ward using the disinfectant hand rub where provided
• clean your hands when you leave using the same hand rub
• always wash your hands with soap, and dry thoroughly if you use a visitor's toilet
• Visiting will be restricted to two people at a time at patient's bedside
• Children under 12 are discouraged from visiting, unless you have permission from the ward manager
• Visiting times will be displayed outside the ward and are at the discretion of the nurse in charge. Please respect the times in the day needed for patients to rest and to receive treatment
• Please do not sit on or put your feet on hospital beds
• Please do not visit your relative or friend if you have a cold, diarrhoea or vomiting, or if you feel unwell yourself
• While you are visiting, please do not use the patients' toilets. There are separate toilets for visitors
• Please help keep our hospitals clean and tidy by disposing of waste, e.g. used tissues or sweet wrappers, in the waste bins provided
• If you are taking your relative's/friend's washing home, please do so on a regular basis so there is no build up of used or infected laundry in their locker
• We do not support food being brought in from home, but recognise that this does happen. However, we cannot reheat any foods not prepared on site