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The Royal Surrey - Our Local Hospital

If you have been referred to the Royal Surrey, or need to visit someone there, this page may help answer some of your questions

I have been referred to the hospital, how long might I wait before I am seen?

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Waiting times to be seen in out-patients can vary a lot between departments. Most appointments are between 5 and 25 weeks as a wait to be seen. The hospital has provided estimated waiting times for patients which can be found at https://www.royalsurrey.nhs.uk/-waiting-times-for-appointments

 

If your problem is clinically urgent then we can ask for an urgent appointment, which will usually be a bit quicker, but obviously the hospital has to balance the urgency of your problem with that of all the other patients who are waiting to be seen. 

 

I have been referred to the hospital and I think I should have received an appointment by now, what should I do?

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​The hospital ask you not to contact your GP about this, but to contact them directly. You should have received a letter acknowledging the referral and there will be a telephone number on this letter to call and check that your referral is in process and not got lost somehow. 

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If you have not received this letter then the hospital would like you to contact their Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS). All hospitals have a PALS which is there to help you communicate with the hospital when you have difficulties. 

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I have been referred to the hospital and my symptoms have got worse, what should I do?

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If your symptoms have worsened since your GP initially referred you then please contact reception to book a review appointment with a GP. It might be that we can do something to help your symptoms, or that the clinical picture has changed so that your referral should be changed to an urgent referral. We can only ask for an appointment to be expedited if the situation has worsened significantly from when we first referred you. 

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I have been referred under the Two Week Rule, what does this mean?

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Sometimes symptoms can suggest the possibility of cancer. ​Even if it is unlikely to be cancer, if the question we want to ask is: 'could this be cancer?' then you don't want to wait ages to find out the answer! In these circumstances we can refer you under a system called the Two Week Rule, which means the hospital must send you an initial appointment within 2 weeks of the referral. The hospital is very good at keeping to this, and managed it the whole way through the pandemic. You can read more about these referrals here.

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Other information about attending out patients appointments

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There is a lot more information on the Royal Surrey website including how they will communicate with you, how to cancel or rearrange, what to do if you need an interpreter or signer, what to do on the day of the appointment, and the thorny issue of parking!

Take at look at their page about out-patient appointments here. 

Nurse And Patient In Waiting Room

Visiting the hospital

Covid restrictions are being eased

Visiting the hospital was obviously very difficult during the pandemic, but from March 2022 the restrictions have been eased, although there are still guidelines to be aware of:

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  • If you have symptoms that could be covid, then please stay away. Obviously there is limited access to testing now and the range of symptoms has broadened, but when it comes to vulnerable people in hospital it is best to stay safe and stay away if you have any sort of respiratory or gastric infection. 

  • Masks are being worn a lot less in public spaces now, but for hospitals it is important to still wear a mask if at all possible. 

  • Please continue to observe the rules of hands, face, space. 

  • You can now visit loved ones in hospital, but there are limits to the number of people who can visit an in-patient, which depends on the ward they are on and the problem they have. There are full details about this here.

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