University of Canberra Hospital

Visitor restrictions – changes to take effect from Monday 26 October 2020

All ACT health facilities and community health centres will ease their visitor restrictions from Monday 26 October.

This easing has been made possible due to continued health screening, physical distancing, and hand hygiene measures. These are the frontline of our defence against COVID-19 and will continue across all our health facilities.

The visitor policy includes:

• Two visitors per patient on each site per day. 
• Visitors can see a patient at the same time, or separately, during visiting hours.
• Wherever possible, we ask that you do not bring children under 17 years with you to the hospital.
• If you are attending an outpatient or a community health clinic, please attend alone wherever possible. If you need support, please limit this to one other person.
• When a woman is admitted for care related to birthing, she may have up to two support persons present. 
• When on our sites, please use the hand sanitiser and keep your distance from other people where possible.

The decision to continue to restrict visitors to our health facilities is always a difficult one, but it ensures we can protect the health and safety of everyone. This is especially necessary for our most vulnerable, particularly patients whose health is already compromised.

Our staff will continue to apply this visitor policy with compassion and common sense. Exceptions for compassionate reasons will continue to be determined on a case by case basis. These decisions will be made in consultation with the relevant clinical staff.

We understand these times can be stressful and we thank you for your patience.

We have zero tolerance for violence or aggression towards our staff or others.

Anyone exhibiting this behaviour may be refused entry.

Visitor restrictions – changes to take effect from Monday 13 July 2020

From Monday 13 July, all hospitals and community health centres across the ACT are returning to tighter visitor restrictions.

This is in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in Victoria and recent positive cases in the ACT.

The visitor policy includes:

• One visitor per patient, per day. 
• Admitted babies, children and young people (0 -17 years) may have one parent/carer present at all times, with an additional visitor up to one hour each day. 
• Women who are admitted for care related to birthing may have up to two support persons present. This needs to be pre-planned with the relevant midwifery and obstetric staff during antenatal care. 
• If you are attending an outpatient and/or a community health clinic you should, wherever possible, attend alone. If you require a support person, please limit this to one person. 

Social distancing principles will continue to apply to all carers and visitors, while children and young people (0-17 years) should avoid visiting health facilities wherever possible. 

The decision to restrict visitors to our health services is always a difficult one, but it ensures we can protect the health and safety of patients, staff and their loved ones. This is especially necessary for our most vulnerable, particularly patients whose health is already compromised.

Staff have been asked to use compassion and common sense to ensure you receive the support you need.

Hydrotherapy pool open

The University of Canberra Hospital hydrotherapy pool is currently open and operating at limited capacity to meet ACT Government COVID-19 restrictions.

All clinics are now being run at the University of Canberra Hospital (UCH) hydrotherapy pool with participant numbers limited to four people per session.