Visiting information

See our visiting hours

Visiting is open in St Patrick’s University Hospital (SPUH) and St Patrick’s Hospital Lucan. Visiting times are currently from 2pm to 5pm and from 6pm to 8.30pm each day. On Saturday and Sunday, there is also currently an additional visiting time of between 10am and 12.30pm.

Service users can welcome a small number of visitors at a time. Visiting should not take place at service user’s mealtimes or when they are due to attend programmes or therapies. Please note that, from time to time, there may need to be changes to visiting opportunities, depending on the service user’s ward or other factors; if this arises, it will be communicated with service users. Special arrangements may be made for service users who are unable to leave their ward; in this instance, service users should speak with the nursing staff in charge of the ward.

Tables and seating are widely available on the ground floor and in the gardens of both hospitals for service users and visitors to meet and spend time together. Visitors will not be able to meet service users on their wards.

Please note that visiting for Willow Grove Adolescent Unit is organised separately; the Willow Grove team will liaise with service users and their families to make arrangements.

Check our current visiting measures

We follow public health guidance for visiting to acute hospitals. We make our visiting guidelines with everyone’s health and safety and our service users’ recovery in mind.

All visitors must follow the measures outlined below.

What should you do when you arrive for a visit?

If you are visiting a service user, you should check in at the main reception of the hospital when you arrive.

Our reception staff will ask you to complete a standard COVID-19 screening survey and agree to follow our infection control measures, which you can see further below. Once this screening is passed, the visit can go ahead.

Are children allowed to visit?

Yes, children and young people aged 16 or under are allowed to visit. Children and young people will need to follow the visiting guidelines and infection control measures in place.

We have a child-friendly visiting space, The Wishing Well Family Room, in SPUH. This is available to all children visiting a service user, once they are accompanied by a responsible adult. A fob key is needed to access this family room; please go to the main reception in SPUH to ask for this.

What infection control measures will I need to follow?

If you are coming to one of our campuses, please come to the main reception desk when you arrive. Our reception staff will ask you to complete a questionnaire with the queries below:

• Have you recently experienced or are you experiencing any respiratory or cold/flu like symptoms including cough, fever, sore throat, headache, loss of smell, loss of taste or distortion of smell or taste?
• Are you a close contact of a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19?
• Have you been advised that you are currently required to self-isolate/restrict your movements?

If you answer “yes” to any of the questions, we cannot allow entry to the campus. If you pass this screening protocol, you will be asked to sign a document agreeing to:

• perform hand hygiene
• practice cough and sneeze etiquette.

Please follow the guidelines below when you are on campus.

• Wash your hands thoroughly before you arrive
• Use our hand hygiene gels at the entrance and throughout the campus
• Observe hand hygiene and coughing and sneezing etiquette closely, as promoted by the Health Service Executive, throughout your time on the campus
• cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing
• dispose your used tissues in a bin
• wash your hands thoroughly after coughing or sneezing
• wash your hands thoroughly before leaving the hospital.