Keeping in touch with patients in hospital

We can help you stay in touch with relatives if you're unable to, please ask a member of staff.

Visitors

We recognise the valuable contribution that visiting makes to the care and wellbeing of our patients. That’s why we are pleased to return to our pre-pandemic approach to visiting. We may need to restrict visiting again, for example if there’s a Covid-19 or norovirus outbreak.

In keeping with our pre-pandemic approach to visiting, we ask that visitors keep the following in mind:

• if you feel unwell – particularly if you have symptoms of Covid-19 – please do not come to hospital
• we may need to restrict visiting in certain areas from time to time to help prevent the spread of infections or illnesses and we appreciate your understanding in these circumstances
• People staying overnight on one of our wards can have up to two visitors at their bedside at any one time during visiting hours and a visit does not need to be booked in advance. Please make sure you check ward visiting hours before travelling to hospital.

Visiting someone who is at the end of their life

When patients are at the end of their life, it is important to have loved ones around them. In addition to the usual two visitors allowed at the patient’s bedside, the ward team can support additional visitors for a patient at the end of their life. Speak to the nurse in charge on the ward for more information.

Personal items drop off 

Your family and/or friends can drop off personal items to help make your stay in hospital more comfortable. Items or packages should be clearly labelled with your name and ward and can be dropped off at the following times: Monday through Friday, 11.00 to 13.00.

There are three drop-off points across our three main hospital sites, as follows:

• Charing Cross Hospital at the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) office in the main entrance lobby on the ground floor
• Hammersmith Hospital at the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) office in the south corridor of B block
• St Mary’s Hospital at the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) office on the ground floor of the Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother (QEQM) building

We also have a selection of food, drink and home comforts available to buy online for delivery to you on the ward. Speak to your ward staff about how to do this

Letters from family and friends

Our patient experience team is accepting messages for patients. Your friends and family are welcome to email letters to IMPERIAL.PATIENT.EXPERIENCE@NHS.NET – they should clearly label emails with the patient's name and ward. The front of house team will get the messages to the wards. This service operates Monday to Friday between the hours of 9.00 and 16.30. Please note that the mailbox is closed during bank holidays.

Virtual visiting 

To make it easier for patients to keep in touch with family and friends, we currently provide a premium NHS Wi-Fi service to allow for video calls and entertainment streaming services free of charge. This has been funded by our dedicated charity,Imperial Health Charity. To connect to the network, search for ‘NHS Wi-Fi’ on your mobile phone or laptop device and sign up.

Our patient experience team is accepting messages for patients. Your friends and family are welcome to email letters to imperial.patient.experience@nhs.net – they should clearly label emails with the patient's name and ward. The patient experience team will email the messages to nominated person on the ward who will read them out to patients. This service operates Monday to Friday between the hours of 9.00 and 16.30. Please note that the the mailbox is closed during bank holidays.