Coronavirus guidance for visitors

Following the outbreak of Covid-19, the Trust took the difficult decision to restrict visitors with the aim of reducing the further spread of the disease. However, now that we have seen a steady decline in local coronavirus cases, we are pleased to be able to ease some of these rules.

Over the last 10 days, we have seen a significant increase in cases of COVID in the Doncaster community and we want to minimise as much as we can the risk of COVID coming into hospital. As such, from Thursday 1 July, the following visiting guidance will be in place.

Note: Those wishing to visit will have to book their timeslot ahead of time by calling the relevant service.

  • Adult inpatients – One named visitor per person for one hour a day.  Visitors must have their temperature taken and they must complete the screening questions on arrival. There will be a booking system so that there is only one person per bay visiting at any one time and a record of visitors will be kept for test and trace purposes.
  • End of Life Care – Open visiting is still available for patients receiving End of Life care – However, all visitors will need to follow the screening process above. Please call ahead and the team will endeavour to facilitate larger families.
  • Learning disabilities, complex needs and those with dementia – Two named visitors are permitted but at different times (only one visitor at a time). However, these visitors are not restricted to one hour.
  • Elective surgery and procedures – All visiting must be conducted virtually (via a phone, tablet or laptop), and is only permitted on compassionate grounds. If unsure, call the service you wish to visit.
  • Paediatric care – For full guidance, please click here.
  • Maternity services – For full guidance, please click here.
  • Outpatients – For those attending for an appointment, one individual may accompany, however please note that they may be asked to leave if social distancing becomes a problem. If unsure, please call ahead.
  • Emergency Department (A&E) – No visitors are permitted in ED apart from in exceptional circumstances. Please discuss with Nurse in charge for adult patients if they fall into the category above (EOL and Learning disabilities/complex needs)

Appointments at the Trust during COVID-19

While we have restricted visiting currently, we are committed to keeping clinical appointments running as normal. If you have received communication for the Trust asking you to attend an appointment on our hospital sites, please do so. If you cannot, for whatever reason, please call ahead with plenty of time, so your appointment can be rearranged and the previous time given to another patient.

Please note, if your appointment is virtual please access this as instructed.

Looking for information on digital letters and DrDoctor? Click here.

Your safety is our primary concern and colleagues are undertaking regular clean-downs of our sites to minimise any risk of infection.

Please adhere to the following if you are coming to our hospitals for an appointment:

  • You must not be symptomatic of Covid-19: Please do not visit our hospitals if you are symptomatic of Covid-19, you live in a household with someone who is, or you or your household have been told to isolate.
  • Can I come with someone else? For those attending for an appointment, one individual may accompany, however please note that they may be asked to leave if social distancing becomes a problem. If unsure, please call ahead.
  • Feeling under the weather? If you have a cough, cold, diarrhoea, vomiting or a temperature, you could have an infection and may risk passing this on to our patients. Please do not visit the hospital if you are feeling under the weather and delay your visit.
  • Overseas trips: If you have just returned from an overseas trip, please do not come to our hospitals.
  • Face covering: All visitors to the Trust must wear an appropriate face covering – if you cannot for medical reason we will offer you a visor. If you don’t wear a covering we will ask you to leave.

Entering the hospital:

  • To minimise any chance of cross-infection, if you are visiting our hospitals, please come directly from home.
  • Please ensure you are wearing a suitable face covering – failure to do so may mean you will be refused entry.
  • Wash your hands upon entry to our hospitals.
  • If coming to a ward, we will take your temperature. If it is higher than normal, unfortunately we will ask you to leave.

Please note, to minimise any chance of cross-infection we have reconfigured our hospital sites. This means that you may need to enter the hospital via a different entrance. Please read your appointment letter or email carefully, ensuring you are using the correct entry. If in any doubt, please ask a member of staff who should be able to help.


We aim to make your visit to hospital as easy as possible. In this section you will find details of how to find and get around our various hospital sitespatient information and leaflets and other useful items.

Our staff are more than happy to help, so if you do have any questions regarding your visit that we haven’t answered, please do not hesitate to contact us. If you would like information regarding a ward or department, you can find out more on our services page.  All hospitals are required to publish information about the actual and planned staffing levels on all our nursing and midwifery wards on a shift by shift basis, to view our most recent report please click here.

If you’ve been a patient at our hospitals recently, we would like to know your views on the care you received. We’re asking everyone who has stayed overnight in hospital or visited Accident & Emergency or the minor injuries unit to tell us how likely they are to recommend us to their friends and family. This ‘Friends & Family Test’ (FFT) is a good way for hospitals to measure patient satisfaction with the care they are provided and the results will be published nationally. Please ask a member of staff for the FFT questionnaire.

If you would like to send a special ‘thank you’ to a member of our staff for their efforts, kindness and compassion, or alternatively to raise a concern, contact the team here.