ARE you a good visitor?That's the question being asked of the thousands of people who walk the wards of Ipswich Hospital each week when they visit friends and relatives.

ARE you a good visitor?

That's the question being asked of the thousands of people who walk the wards of Ipswich Hospital each week when they visit friends and relatives.

The charter has been drawn up by patients' user groups and is designed to encourage people to think about how their behaviour in the hospital can affect others.

Christine Smart, hospital chairman, said: “This charter is based on what patients and their families believe a good visitor should be. “It is excellent, and very wide ranging, covering everything from tackling the spread of infection, through to a telephone etiquette - with one member of the immediate family acting as a link for all families and friends”.

The charter covers an array of areas that affect patients - from things like hand hygiene to excessive noise.

Recommendations in the charter include:

always using disinfectant hand gel at ward entrances

not having more than two visitors at a patient's bedside without arranging it with nursing staff beforehand

not visiting when you are unwell.

The charter is based on a proposal put forward by the hospital's cancer services user group - a support group for cancer patients and their families.

It was then discussed and supported by all of the different user groups at the hospital and has now been turned in to a leaflet called

Are you a Good Visitor?

Clinical staff have been involved in all stages of planning for the leaflet and it will now be given out to all patients as part of their assessment when they are admitted.

It will also be available in information racks around the hospital.

Do you think a visitors' charter is a good idea? Do you have any suggestions about what should be included? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or send us an e-mail to eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk