Visitors Permissions

Effective from Friday 26 May 2023

Eastern Health is committed to balancing patients’ need for contact with their families and friends and providing services in a safe and effective manner.

We support maintaining a COVID-safe environment and keep precautions in place to protect staff, patients and visitors.

All visitors to hospital must comply with check in, screening, physical distancing and mask wearing requirements.

Some areas of our facilities have additional PPE requirements. All visitors are required to follow requests from staff to wear different masks, gloves or gowns where required.

All visitors will be screened on entry. The following visitors are NOT PERMITTED:
• Visitors with symptoms of COVID-19, including cough, fever, runny nose, shortness of breath
• Visitors who have tested positive to COVID-19 within 7 days
• Visitors who are a close contact of a confirmed COVID-19 case

Children and young adults under the age of 18 are not currently permitted to visit unless by exemption as described below. Please note, children are included in the total number of visitors for a patient. Children aged 8 years and over are required to wear a surgical mask.

Children presenting for treatment aged 2-8 years of age may wear a surgical mask if tolerated.

AREA	REQUIREMENTS
Emergency Department	One visitor is permitted for adult patients. For children and infants, two carers may accompany the patient.
End of life care	Two visitors are permitted at any one time. A group may exceed the ‘two visitors at a time’ rule by prior arrangement with the treating care team.
Birth Suite	A partner and a support person of a pregnant patient can attend the labour and birth for as long as required and must adhere to all infection control requirements advised by the treating team. If you have COVID-19 at the time of labour, your partner or support person will be able to accompany you in birth suite. You will need to speak with your treating team.
Postnatal ward	A partner or support person can attend from 8am to 8pm. Partners are permitted to stay overnight if a single room is available. Siblings of the newborn may visit once per day (while in the ward they must remain by the patient’s bedside)
Special care nursery and Paediatric ward	Two parents or guardians may visit until 8pm. One parent may stay overnight on the paediatric ward. Siblings of patients may accompany parent/s who are visiting during the day (while in the ward they must remain by the patient’s bedside) One parent may visit special care nursery overnight to facilitate breastfeeding.
Antenatal clinic	A partner or support person may attend. Children who are below school age may accompany their parent to the appointment.
Outpatients and other day procedure areas	One visitor is permitted for adult patients. For children, two carers may accompany the patient.
Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatric Unit (AIPU)	2 nominated visitors per patient will be permitted between 5 – 7pm during weekdays and between 8am and 7pm on the weekends and public holidays, or as requested by the service. Visitors under 18 years must be accompanied by the consumer’s parent/carer or another appropriate adult.
Infant, Child and Youth Mental Health Community Services (ICYMHS) Older Adults Mental Health	Clients attending clinical appointment or treatment may be accompanied by family members/significant others or, as requested by the service.
Perinatal Emotional Health Service (PEHS)	Outpatient clients with a clinical appointment may attend appointment with their partner/support person and infant/under school age children or, as requested by the service.
Inpatient ward areas (adult)	Two visitors per patient per day is permitted. Exceptional and compassionate circumstances will be considered by local care teams.
Residential Care Services	Visitors are encouraged to make a booking prior to visiting and will be required to follow testing and PPE requirements. Please contact the home directly to arrange appointments and for further information.

Upon entering an Eastern Health premises visitors must:

Check in and complete entry screening
Ensure the screening sticker provided by Eastern Health is visible
Wear a mask at all times whilst on site. This will be provided upon entry
Maintain 1.5m physical distancing at all times
Wear additional Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) when directed to by staff. Staff will supervise visitors to correctly put on and take off PPE
Complete hand hygiene on entry, and regularly throughout your visit

Visitors to the following areas will need to provide proof of negative Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) result and wear an N95 mask when entering site:

Mental Health inpatient units
Peter James Centre and Wantirna Health
Renal dialysis
Haematology and oncology inpatient ward and outpatient clinics
Residential Aged Care

There are two ways to show proof of negative RAT result:

Show photographic, timestamped proof of negative RAT result taken from home on the morning of your visit, OR
Conduct a RAT at the entrance to the hospital and show proof of negative result

Visitors to mental health inpatient units must conduct a RAT and show proof of negative result prior to entering. Photographic proof of a RAT conducted at home will not be accepted.

Visitors to the following areas are not required to show evidence of negative RAT result:

Short Stay Unit (SSU)
ED
Outpatients
Ambulatory clinics
Pharmacy
Pathology
Medical imaging

Note: Visitors attending in the role of supporting cultural and/or spiritual beliefs are required to meet all other visitor screening requirements.

All visitors to Eastern Health have a responsibility to treat all healthcare staff and patients with respect and courtesy, without discrimination and behave in a way that does not disrupt our services or cause harm to our staff members, patients or visitors. Physical aggression and abusive language including swearing, name calling and threats directed at our staff will not be tolerated. We thank you for your cooperation.

Visitors with a valid mask exemption will be asked to show proof of negative RAT result prior to entering Eastern Health premises.