HOSPITAL VISITING

All hospital visitors are recommended to wear a medical face mask. For more information about visiting: Visitors and family. See our COVID-19 page for general COVID-19 advice, detailed hospital visiting guidelines and COVID-19 tests.

See West Coast COVID-19 vaccination clinics for info on vaccinations link COVID-19 Vaccination • West Coast • Healthpoint

Last updated:
16 September 2022

Fewer visitor restrictions now apply

For visitors to all facilities (effective from and last updated on 16 September 2022)

Some visitor restrictions for all Te Whatu Ora Te Tai o Poutini West Coast health facilities remain in place, but we have relaxed others.

There is still a heightened risk to vulnerable people in hospital and so people must continue to wear a mask when visiting any of our facilities and follow other advice designed to keep patients, staff and other visitors safe.

Kia whakahaumaru te whānau, me ngā iwi katoa – this is to keep everybody safe:

  • Visitors or support people must not visit our facilities if they are unwell. Do not visit if you have recently tested positive for COVID-19 and haven’t completed your isolation period.
  • Patients in single rooms may have more than one visitor while patients in multi-bed rooms can have one visitor only per patient to ensure there is no overcrowding.
  • People can have one or two support people to accompany them to outpatients appointments.
  • Women in labour in a birthing suite, in Te Nīkau Hospital’s Maternity Ward and in Buller’s Kawatiri Maternity Unit can have the usual support people, subject to space, for the duration of their stay in our facilities.
  • Eating or drinking at the bedside is at the discretion of the Clinical Nurse Manager. Visitors must not eat or drink in multibed rooms because of the increased risk when multiple people remove their mask in the same space.
  • Hand sanitiser is available and must be used.

Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding as our staff work hard to protect and care for some of the most vulnerable in our community.

Mask wearing

  • Surgical/medical masks must be worn at all sites, except in counselling, mental health and addiction services where it’s on a case-by-case agreement with patients. Masks will be provided if you don’t have one. In higher-risk environments, people, including young children, may not be able to visit if they cannot wear a mask.
  • Any member of the public with a mask exemption is welcome in all our facilities when attending to receive health care and *treatment. Please show your mask exemption card and appointment letter to staff at the entrance. *Treatment includes coming into the Emergency Department, outpatient appointments, surgery or a procedure.

Visiting patients with COVID-19

  • People are able to visit patients who have COVID-19 but they must wear an N95 mask – this will be provided if you don’t have one.
  • Other methods of communication will be facilitated e.g. phone, Facetime, Zoom, WhatsApp etc where visits aren’t possible.

You must NOT visit our facilities if you

  • are COVID-19 positive
  • are unwell. Please stay home if you have a tummy bug or cold or flu/COVID-19-like symptoms (even if you’ve tested negative for COVID-19).

Te Whatu Ora West Coast Aged Residential Care facilities

Visitors are welcome at our Aged Care Residential facilities, subject to the space available. All visitors must wear a surgical mask.

More COVID-19 information

System Level Measure Improvement Plan 2018-2019

The System Level Measures Framework was introduced by the Ministry of Health in 2016/17 and encourages a system-wide approach to improving health outcomes.

It presents a core set of national outcomes for the health sector to strive towards with the opportunity to identify a set of local contributory measures, aligned with each of the national outcomes.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

The West Coast Alliance has monitored the progress of the 2017/18 Improvement Plan throughout the year and is pleased to see the progress being made both in local contributory measures as well as the nationally selected System Level Measures.
Improvements to the enrolment process for Community Oral Health services have seen 99% of our pre-school population receiving their annual oral health check on time in 2017, up from 91% in 2016. Regular checks allow for early intervention where necessary and provide the opportunity for clinicians to reinforce the importance of baby teeth and good oral hygiene practices.
Coordinated promotion and efforts by general practices, pharmacies and the team at Poutini Waiora saw 63% of our Māori population aged 65 or over receiving their free seasonal influenza vaccination in the 2017 flu season, up from 50% in 2016. This key group are at higher risk of influenza and this programme provides good protection against a preventable hospitalisation.
Two of our general practices are now enrolling patients who have a long term mental health condition into the free long term conditions management programme which allows patients to access a free annual health check. Working in this way allows patients to consider their physical and mental health needs as a complete picture.
A data quality improvement project that has seen collaboration between our DHB B4 School Check (B4SC) service, general practices and the Ministry of Health has ensured that 100% of children identified as obese at their B4SC were offered a referral to their GP for ongoing support with growth monitoring and lifestyle interventions, up from 17% in 2016/17.

Tags

Download pdf (967 KB)

Back to Document Library

Page last updated: 28 October 2022

Is this page useful?