Southend Hospital will be restricting its visiting hours to enable patients to rest more.

At the moment all wards have their own visiting hours, but from April 1 will only be open to visitors from 2.30pm to 4.30pm and 6pm to 8pm.

The hospital said this was needed to get patients to rest more to aid recovery, and allow them uninterrupted meals. It would also help to ease parking problems and make it easier to clean wards.

Diane Sarkar, associate director of nursing, said: "Southend Hospital's motto is putting patients first. We firmly believe our new visiting times will ensure the best possible care for them all.

"There will, of course, be some circumstances where the ward manager will allow exceptional visiting for a child patient, or when someone is on intensive care, or close to death."

The hospital will only allow two visitors at a time to see a patient, and they won't be allowed to sit on the bed.

Parents will only be allowed to bring babies in exceptional circumstances.

Children under five can only stay for up to 30 minutes and over-fives for up to an hour.

To minimise the risk of infection, visitors will be asked to use hand sanitisers when arriving and leaving a ward.

Also, people who are ill will be urged not to visit.

In addition, visitors won't be allowed to use cameras, camcorders and mobile phones in restricted areas.