Information alert:

This page will give an overview of some of the things that you can expect during your hospital stay.

Arrangements for your stay with us

On arrival, please proceed to the appropriate ward/department where you will be met by nursing staff. There might be times when you may be admitted to a different ward to the one you were expecting or moved from one ward to another. This will not affect your treatment.

When you arrive at the ward, you may be asked to wait in a day room whilst a bed is allocated to you.

Cash and valuables

Please leave all cash and valuables at home. If you need to bring valuables into hospital, these can be sent to General Office for safekeeping. General Office is open between 8.30am and 4.30pm Monday to Friday. Therefore, if you are discharged outside these times you will not be able collect your property until the General Office is open. The trust does not accept responsibility for items not handed in for safekeeping.

Discover the uniforms worn across our hospital sites and what roles they correspond with on our identifying our staff page.

We know how important is for patients to keep in contact with their family and close friends while they are in hospital. For support, please go to our visiting someone page.

Remember, please speak to the ward before visiting a loved one.

As a Trust, we understand that many of our patients feel more comfortable when sharing hospital rooms with other patients of the same sex.

The ward or room where your bed is will only have patients of the same sex as you. As well as this, the toilet near to your bed will be a single-sex toilet as per our maintaining privacy and dignity policy, which can be found on our Document Management System. If you are an inpatient at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, you will receive your own private room.

The only exemption to our single-sex policy is in our Emergency Department.

Infection prevention and the control of infection always remains a top priority within our Trust. Cleansing hands, keeping surfaces as clear as possible so that they can be cleaned and asking unwell friends and family not to visit are all ways of helping us to prevent infection throughout our hospitals. For more information, please visit our IPC pages.

On the ward you will be served three meals a day at the following times:

  • 7.30am-9am
  • 12noon-1pm
  • 5pm-6pm.

You'll be asked to order your meals from one of our inpatient menus. After breakfast you will be asked to choose your lunch and then during the afternoon you will select your evening meal. The meals will be served by a service host/hostess and ward staff. If you have any special dietary needs, please tell the ward staff on your admission.

Our menus include a range of food options and are available to read and download. Versions with photographs can also be made available. If you require support with eating, please let staff know to make the necessary arrangements.

Throughout the day you can expect to be offered a choice of hot and cold drinks, along with a selection of snacks such as biscuits, cakes, cheese and crackers.

If you are able, you will be assisted by nursing staff or therapists visiting the wards in getting out of bed and walking around areas where it is safe to do so. This is not only to help increase your mobility but also to avoid things like pressure sores which can occur when a patient has been in bed for a long period of time. Your nurse will discuss this with you depending on your treatment plan and recovery timeline.

Whatever cultural, religious or spiritual beliefs you may have, you have the right to have these beliefs respected, as long as this is possible and does not impose excessively on the rights of others. Please let the nursing staff know what you need and every effort will be made to arrange this for you.

For more information, please visit our spiritual and cultural support page.

Mail is delivered to all wards each morning. If your friends and relatives are sending post to you while you are in hospital, please ask that they use the full address of the hospital in which you are staying and clearly identify your name and your ward on the envelope.

There are also post boxes available across all three of our sites.