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

Number of children, adolescents, adults assessed for physical signs of being sexually abused in 2016-2018

RE Official Information Act request CDHB 10116 and WCDHB 9315

I refer to your email dated 5 June 2019 requesting the following information under the Official Information Act from Canterbury DHB and West Coast DHB.
Sexual abuse and Assault medical services for all ages on the West Coast are delivered in Christchurch, therefore numbers supplied below in our response are for both DHBs. Twelve years and under to Christchurch Hospital Paediatricians and 13 years and over to Cambridge Clinic.

1. The number of children (0-12 years old) assessed for physical signs of being sexually abused in your DHB in 2018, 2017 and 2016?

The Christchurch Hospital Paediatric team currently assesses children aged 12 years and under if a medical sexual abuse assessment is required. We started seeing children where there were concerns regarding sexual abuse on May 1st 2017 (prior to this time this work was carried out by Cambridge Clinic – please refer to Table one (overleaf)). We saw 31 children in 2017. In 2018 we saw 32 children, including children from the West Coast. The numbers seen from the West Coast are very small, we are therefore declining to provide specific West Coast numbers under section 9(2)(a) of the Official Information Act i.e. “…to protect the privacy of natural persons, including those deceased.”

2. For how many of these cases did a DHB clinician attend a court hearing with respect to a report?

We do not keep formal records of court attendances. (Declined under section 18(g) of the Official Information Act “i.e. …we do not hold this information.”

3. The number of people aged 13 years and over who were assessed for physical signs of being sexually abused in your DHB in 2018, 2017 and 2016?

This service is contracted to Cambridge Clinic. Please refer to table one (overleaf) for the number of people aged 13 years and over from Canterbury and West Coast who were assessed for physical signs of being sexually abused 2016 – 2018. Note This data also includes children (0-12 years old) seen by Cambridge Clinic prior to the Christchurch Hospital Paediatric team taking over this service in 2017.

4. For how many of these cases in each of these years, did a DHB clinician attend a court hearing with respect to a report?

We do not keep formal records of court attendances. (Declined under section 18(g) of the Official Information Act “i.e. …we do not hold this information.”

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Page last updated: 2 July 2019

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