Hospital visiting hours: time for improvement.

In a survey of hospital visiting hours in general medical and surgical wards throughout the United Kingdom a pattern of visiting emerged showing that many hospitals still have very restricted visiting. A quarter of the 404 hospitals that responded permitted visiting for an average of two hours a day or less. In contrast, just over a third of hospitals allowed visiting for more than five hours a day. There was no relation between visiting times and type of hospital, but a striking regional variation in visiting hours was found, with more liberal visiting in south east England and restricted visiting in northern England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.