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

Infectious diseases

9 documents.

Protecting your health in an emergency – Returning home after a flood

Flood water can contain lots of nasty bugs that could make you and your family sick.
Before you start the clean-up process, it’s important to follow these steps to keep you and your family safe.

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More informationDownload pdf (639 KB)

Access for support people in hospitals within DHB during Level 2 lockdown and Level 1. (Between 14 May and 8 June).

RE Official information request WCDHB 9439

I refer to your email dated 23 June 2020 requesting the following information under the Official
Information Act from West Coast DHB. Specifically:

The protocols the DHB had/have in relation to access for support people in the hospitals within your
DHB region during Level 2 lockdown (between 14 May and 8 June) and Level 1.

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More informationDownload pdf (1 MB)

COVID-19 questions

RE Official information request WCDHB 9408

We refer to your email dated 16 March 2020 requesting the following information under the Official Information Act from West Coast DHB regarding preparations for COVID-19. We note that our Communications team have provided you with the Ministry of Health link for a response to questions 3 and 5. https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/covid-19-novel-coronavirus-update-25-february and we will respond to the following questions:
1. How many hospital beds are in your DHB?
2. How many beds are currently available?
4. How many ICU beds are available?
6. How many ventilators do you have?
7. How many non-invasive ventilation machines?
8. How many ventilators are in-use?
9. Are any more ventilators being ordered in? If so, how many, and roughly how much do they cost per-unit?
10. How many ICU consultants do you have on staff?
11. How many respiratory physicians do you have on staff?
12. How many general medicine physicians?
13. How many anaesthetists do you have on staff?
14. How many anaesthetic registrars do we have able to intubate a patient? The West Coast DHB does not employ any anaesthetic registrars.

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More informationDownload pdf (248 KB)

Details as to how the flu vaccine was rolled out among hospital staff this year.

RE Official information request WCDHB 9413

We refer to your email dated 30 March 2020 requesting the following information under the Official Information Act from West Coast DHB.

Details as to how the flu vaccine was rolled out among hospital staff this year.

  1. Which staff were done first? Which wards (staff) were done first?
  2. When was corporate done?
  3. Are partners of frontline workers being offered the vaccine?
  4. Were they offered it in the past?

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More informationDownload pdf (324 KB)

Measles Fact Sheet

Measles Fact Sheet – News item

With the large number of measles cases around the country, we can expect to see some measles cases on the Coast at some stage.

Measles is a highly infectious virus that can be life threatening. Complications occur in about one in three people, and for them measles can be serious, even fatal.

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More informationDownload pdf (130 KB)

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Page last updated: 22 August 2022

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