Visiting
If you are visiting a patient, find information on:
Inpatient wards
Visitors are welcome from midday to 9pm. A maximum of two people at a time can visit one patient.
On children’s wards: parents/care givers can visit anytime, in addition to the two visitors permitted.
On maternity wards: birthing partners can visit anytime, in addition to the two visitors permitted. All other maternity visitors can attend Monday to Friday 2pm to 7pm, or weekends 10am to 7pm.
If you would like to visit outside of standard visiting hours please contact the ward and speak to the nurse in charge.
Visiting times may change at short notice.
Pregnant people and birthing partners
Two birth partners can be with you throughout your labour and can be present when you are receiving one-to-one care from a midwife in a labour room and during inductions of labour, elective cases, or High Dependency Unit care.
On the postnatal and antenatal wards, one support person is welcome for the duration of your stay.
You will be able to attend hospital-based antenatal clinics (Windsor walk, Venetian building, Community Midwives Centre, Midwives House, Orpington Hospital, Beckenham Beacon and Queen Mary’s – Sidcup) with one other person.
End of life care patients
Patients nearing the end of their lives can have up to four visitors where this can happen safely. However, please speak to the ward manager in advance before agreeing how many visitors are permitted, and when the visits can take place. We will do our very best to accommodate your wishes.
Patients with disabilities or specific care needs
Patients with specific care needs, including dementia, learning disabilities or mental health needs, will be permitted visitors for extended periods, but please agree this with the relevant ward leader, matron or head of nursing for the area in which they are being cared for.
The same applies to patients in distress, or who are deteriorating due to isolation from visitors. However, as above, please agree this with the ward leader, matron or head of nursing for the area in which they are being cared for.
If you cannot visit
You may wish to use phone, email, Skype, FaceTime or WhatsApp to keep in touch with relatives or friends in the hospital.
All patients at King’s College Hospital have access to free patient Wi-Fi and through this, patients are able to access a range of TV, radio and other entertainment options.
Helping us to ensure patient privacy and dignity
Please respect our limits on the number of visitors allowed at any one time: our patients need a peaceful and calm environment in which to recover and large numbers of visitors can be noisy and disruptive.
They may be very poorly and we often have to transfer them around the hospital, to and from theatres and wards. So please give them priority when you are taking a lift, and use visitor rather than patient toilets, where possible, to give patients more privacy and to cut the risk of cross-infection.
We would also appreciate it if you would help us to keep communal areas and entrances clean, including lifts and stairwells.
Smoke-free King’s
We are a smoke-free hospital. Patients are not permitted to smoke anywhere on the hospital grounds. This includes the use of e-cigarettes.
Visitors are permitted to use e-cigarettes (vape) in outside areas.
We offer help to quit to patients and visitors who want to stop smoking.
Feedback and assistance
If you have time, please fill in one of the comment forms that you will find around the hospital, because we would like to hear what you think of King’s and what your visit was like. And if you have any questions about your relative’s or friend’s care or would like more information about the services we provide, you can contact our Patient Advice Liaison Service (PALS), which will give you all the help you need.
If you would like a quiet spot for reflection, you can visit our Sanctuary quiet room, St Luke’s Chapel, or the Muslim Prayer Room.