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Patients and visitors

Visitor policy

Guidelines on visiting.

General information 

We aim to provide high quality care in a safe and clean environment. Our staff are guided by our values of putting our patients first and making sure everyone is treated with dignity and respect at all times.

Our staff and patients have a right to be treated with dignity and respect when working and accessing our services irrespective of age, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, disability, gender or trans status, marital status and pregnancy. We value diversity amongst our services and take a strict zero tolerance policy towards discrimination, harassment and any other form of exclusion within MTW services including, but not limited to, racism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and ableism.

We offer single sex wards at Maidstone Hospital and Tunbridge Wells Hospital has single en-suite rooms on all wards. Single sex accommodation may be provided in single sex wards and single sex bays or rooms within mixed wards. Download our Declaration of Compliance.

In exceptional circumstances in which a patient needs urgent or specialist care in areas such as Accident and Emergency, Intensive Care Unit, Coronary Care Unit, Stroke Unit or recovery, mixing men and women may be unavoidable. We will work to resolve such situations as quickly as possible and will keep patients and their families informed about our actions. During these times, our priority will be to maintain patients’ privacy and dignity.

If you have any concerns about privacy and dignity, please speak to the ward sister/charge nurse in the first instance or the matron for the area. Alternatively, you can contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) on 01622 224960.

Our hospitals at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells are smoke-free, which means smoking isn’t permitted anywhere on-site.

We are delighted to be able to offer our patients picture menus via iPads on our wards at both hospitals. The picture menus are great for helping patients with communication difficulties select the food they want to eat, giving them both independence and choice.

View our Accessibility Statement published on 23 September 2020. 

Keeping safe while staying in our hospitals

While you are in hospital, keeping you safe and well is a priority for the staff looking after you. There are also some simple things you can do to help keep yourself safe during your hospital stay, such as asking for help when needed, protecting yourself from slips and falls and helping to prevent blood clots.

A leaflet ‘Simple steps to keep you safe during your hospital stay’ is available to read to give you some tips and advice on keeping yourself safe. The leaflet is also available in multiple languages. A video has also been produced which you can view below.

Patient access to treatment

Read our policy on patient referral to treatment (RTT) access and waiting times. The policy encompasses procedures for managing patient access to RTT services from booking, notice requirements, patients’ choice and waiting list management for all stages of a referral to treatment, including discharge to primary care or other provider.

MTW makes every effort to ensure that referrals are handled efficiently and equitably, in line with national guidance, and to ensure that the patient’s best interests and wishes are at the forefront of the way the Trust operates.

What 3 Words 

What3words is a mobile app that helps to make locations more accessible. You can use the what3words website or free app (available on iOS and Android) to reach specific locations at our hospitals. The What3words address are shown starting with ///

Click on the links below for more details and please be advised more locations will be added in due course.

Maidstone Hospital Main Entrance: ///dads.actor.coats

Maidstone Hospital Emergency Department Entrance: ///trendy.soap.elaborate

Kent Oncology Entrance: ///slowly.translated.recall

Do you need an interpreter?

If you need to use an interpreter when you visit the Hospital for an appointment or procedure, please contact the number on your appointment letter to arrange this.  Please provide as much notice as possible.  This includes people needing British Sign Language and Hands On/Hands Over interpreting.

Reducing infections

We pride ourselves on having very low infection rates.

However, we need your help to make sure we keep infection rates down. Please help us protect our patients by making sure you use the gel provided in all areas of our hospitals to clean your hands. There are also wash hand basins close to every bed for everyone to use before and after they come into contact with patients.

Handy tips on how to prevent and reduce the spread of infections can be found on our visiting hours page.

Or you can read more about how we’re preventing infections in Our quality story.