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

Vaccination/Immunisation rates for DHB Health Care workers, i.e. midwives, nurses and doctors.

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RE Official Information Act request WCDHB 9329

I refer to your email dated 25 July 2019 requesting the following information under the Official Information Act from West Coast DHB.

1. Any information the DHB holds about vaccination/immunization rates for its health workers, including the various rates for midwives, nurses and doctors working for the DHB.
2. Any information the DHB holds about trends in vaccination rates for health workers over the previous decade, and whether any measures have been taken to increase uptake.
3. Any information the DHB holds about vaccination rates for its health workers specifically from Pertussis/Whooping cough, seasonal ‘flu and MMR.

We can only provide information going back to 2013, however, we are seeing an increase in the volume of vaccinations we are providing our people over the past five years. These include vaccinations for: Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, MMR, Pertussis and Varicella.
Please refer to Appendix 1 Table one (attached) which shows the number of vaccinations given by either our own Occupational Health team, or by other West Coast DHB Authorised Vaccinators for the five key vaccinations mentioned above:
We are unable to provide information regarding vaccinations rates for specific groups of health workers, with the exception of Influenza.
Our Influenza campaign is measured separately, as we target all our people for this vaccination and aim for 80% of our workforce to be vaccinated.
Influenza immunisation rates for West Coast DHB employees are publically available on the Ministry of Health website:
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/preventative-health-wellness/immunisation/influenza
2019 influenza vaccination rates for West Coast DHB employees have not yet been released by the Ministry, however, as at August 2019, 73% of West Coast DHB’s workforce have been immunised against this year’s influenza. This figure is expected to increase as DHB employees are still able to access this vaccination through our Occupational Health programme. 9(2)(a)
In addition, we believe these rates may even be higher as some staff may have been immunised by their GP and this is not reflected in these numbers.
Please refer to Appendix 1 Tables two and three (attached) for West Coast DHB influenza vaccination rates by workforce and influenza vaccination rates by year 2015-2019 (August).
I trust that this satisfies your interest in this matter.
Please note that this response, or an edited version of this response, may be published on the West Coast DHB website after your receipt of this response.

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Page last updated: 3 October 2019

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