Planning your visit to the Hospice

• Clothes and footwear for during the day. We encourage patients to get dressed if they feel well enough
• Night clothes, dressing gown and slippers
• Toiletries, hairbrush, toothbrush, toothpaste, make up, shaving equipment
• Books or magazines
• Mobile phone, laptop or iPad. Please remember to bring any chargers you need. These will be checked by our electrician before they can be used. You will be responsible for these items
• A small amount of money, as we have a café and we also offer some newspapers
• All your medicines, which should be in labelled original boxes, bottles or blister packs
• Any dressings and medical equipment you use, for example catheters or breathing machines. If you use BIPAP and have a spare machine, please bring it with you
• Outpatient appointment letters and transport details
• Towels and table top mirrors are provided

We strongly advise you not to bring in large amounts of money or valuables.  However, we understand that this is sometimes necessary. You will be asked about this on admission and will be encouraged to send the money or valuables home with a relative.  If not, they will be listed and locked in the Hospice safe.  A receipt will be given and the items will be available during office hours.

Please remember that unless your valuables are handed in for safekeeping, St Joseph’s Hospice will not be responsible for your property during your stay.

We do not have parking for visitors unless you have your own blue badge.

You will not be able to use your loved one’s blue badge to park in our car
park.

Details of where you can park are available on our website at stjh.org.uk
or ask at Reception.

Due to the risk of fire and explosion we do not permit smoking inside the Hospice building. This includes the ward areas, Day hospice and the Hub. You can smoke in the garden, where there is a smoking shelter.

Relatives and visitors are only permitted to smoke in the smoking area.

You may be offered a Chaperone to give reassurance and comfort during examinations that you might find embarrassing or distressing.

Do discuss this with the team caring for you.

We have a flexible visiting policy. However to ensure the dignity, privacy and
peace of all our patients, we request that you avoid visiting before
10am and aim to leave before 9pm.

Children must be supervised at all times
and leave by 8 pm. If you feel that you would like to or need to visit outside of
these times, please speak to the nurse in charge. Please do not visit if you are
unwell, especially if you have an infection.

We have protected meal times between 12.15 and 1.15pm when we ask visitors to leave the ward unless you are assisting your loved one with their meal.

To reduce noise and because we are aware that our patients often find a large
volume of visitors at one time very tiring, we request that no more than six
people visit at one time. Other visitors are welcome to wait in the Hub on the
ground floor where you can get something to eat or drink. There are also
activities for children to keep them occupied.

However, if there is a special occasion e.g. family celebration or specific need
for more people to visit together, please discuss with the nurse in charge. If
there are a lot of people, we may need to move the patient to a different area of
the hospice for this visit. This will of course depend on availability of space and your loved one’s condition.

Please wash or gel your hands after entering and before leaving the Hospice. You will be required to wear disposable gloves and an apron when caring for your loved one if they are suspected of having a respiratory or contagious infection.

These are provided outside the room, staff can assist you. We will also need to restrict visiting to two significant people.

We have protected meal times between 12:15pm and 1:15pm and ask that unless you are assisting your loved one with their meal that you do not stay during this period

There is tea and coffee in the visitors kitchen. Please do not spend long periods in the communal areas or mix with other families.

The Five Sisters Café is open and you can purchase breakfast, lunch, snacks and drinks – purchases are by card only.

We would like to remind visitors not to use their mobile phones in the corridors
as this can disturb patients.

If there is any breach of the visiting guidance your rights will be relinquished.

We will not provide you with food while you are visiting.

Our Five Sisters Café in the Hub area on the ground floor is open from 7.30am – 4pm Monday to Friday (closing times may vary). Our Café offers a wide selection of breakfast items, hot lunch options, sandwiches and sweet and savoury treats. When the Café is closed, hot and cold drinks and light snacks are available to purchase from the vending machine in the Visitors Dining Room.

A range of restaurants and take away establishments and a Sainsbury’s Local
are within easy walking distance of the hospice.

There is also a kitchen on the ward where you can make yourself tea or coffee.

Yes, we allow a loved one to stay overnight in the patient’s bedroom and two if the patient is dying. Please be aware it may not be possible if it is a shared room. We are aware that sleeping in a makeshift bed is not ideal for anyone, it also increases the general noise levels on the ward so it can disturb other
patients. Therefore we encourage family member not to stay overnight unless
there is a specific reason, such as a communication barrier or the patient is
approaching the end of their life. Please discuss with the nurse in charge,
ward manager or Matron.

Children are not permitted to stay overnight.

If we have identified your loved one is within the last days or hours of life, there will be some flexibility in this guidance.

The Nurse in Charge will speak to you. We ask that a maximum of two visitors stay with the patient overnight, please discuss this and visiting with the team if you have any concerns about this or any other issues.

Children are not permitted to stay overnight.

Patients can have up to six visitors at any one time, including children, who must be supervised at all times and leave by 8 pm.

There are Quiet and Sitting rooms, please do not overcrowd in these areas. The Hub on the ground floor has some lovely activities: books, toys, table football and a drawing table amongst other things in the Family area.

We also have some wonderful kits for children – called Elephant kits to help support children at this difficult time.

We try to accommodate pets when possible. Please speak to the person in charge of your care who will be able to advise you further.

No, we do not have the facilities to do patients’ washing.

There are televisions and radios, which are provided free of charge. Wi-Fi is available. We have DVD players, games and books. We have volunteers on the ward who can spend time with patients talking, reading, painting or creating items.

If you have any concerns or worries about what is happening to you please do not hesitate to speak to a member of staff.  If they are unable to help you themselves, they will endeavour to find someone who can.

If you would like to visit your loved one after death please discuss this with the ward manager or nurse in charge.

Lourdes Ward is situated on the second floor.

To contact the ward directly call 020 8525 6022/6023

St Michael’s Ward is situated on the first floor.

To contact the ward directly call 020 8525 6020/6021

24/7 helpline – First Contact Team – 0300 30 30 400