Staying in our hospitals
At the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust our aim is first to diagnose the problem and then to give you the best possible treatment, ensuring your experience of our services is as good as possible. We want you to be able to go home quickly, happy with the care you've received.
Plan your hospital stay or visit a patient
If you are coming for NHS treatment at one of our hospitals or you plan to visit a hospital patient, you may have questions about what is allowed or is not allowed on the hospital wards or when it’s OK for friends and family to visit. This section of our website tells you a number of things about staying at our hospitals or visiting patients on the wards, including how to find a ward, visiting hours, food and drink and hospital parking.
- Before you’re admitted to hospital
- What to expect on the hospital ward
- Children's wards: information for parents and visitors
- Your treatment as an in-patient
- Same-sex accommodation
- Going home from hospital
- Disabled facilities at our hospitals
- Parking at our hospitals
- Visiting hours at the Royal Free London
- Find a ward A-Z
We are a smoke-free trust. For help with giving up smoking, find out more about our stop smoking service.
What you can do to help us
To help us provide you with the best possible patient experience, there are some things we may need from you.
If something is not what you expect, please tell us as soon as you can so we can try to sort it out. Please talk to the hospital ward staff in the first instance.
Please tell us if you require interpreters during your hospital stay or visit. You can arrange this with a hospital nurse or see further information on interpreting services at our hospitals.
We are fully committed to providing equal and fair treatment for everyone who uses our hospitals, as part of our commitment to the patient experience. Hospital patients who behave violently or aggressively will be reported to the police.
What to bring into our hospitals
We strongly advise you not to bring any items of value (financial or sentimental) into hospital with you. We have very limited secure storage facilities and cannot be held liable for any property lost on our premises.
Please speak to a senior nurse on the ward if you require safe storage of small items.
Elective access policy
To ensure that all patients are treated efficiently and with equity we have an elective access policy for planned patient care pathways by which we manage all referrals to our services. Read our elective access policy.