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

Measles Facts

  1. Home
  2. Health news
  3. Measles Facts

Friday 6 September 2019Health news3 minutes to read

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.

What are the symptoms?

Measles symptoms are a:

  1. cough or runny nose or conjunctivitis AND
  2. fever above 38.50c AND
  3. a rash

If you’re sick stay home and call your General Practice team/family doctor for advice any time of day or night. Please do not go to your GP in person as you may spread the illness to others.  Anyone with measles needs to be isolated from the time they become ill until 4 days after the rash has appeared.

Who is protected from measles?

People who have had two MMR vaccinations (typically given at 15months and 4 years) are immune from measles. People born before 1969 will have been exposed to the measles virus and will have acquired immunity.

Those born between 1969 and 1990 are considered to have a good level of protection. This group were offered one measles vaccine and evidence suggests that one dose of MMR protects 95% of people from developing measles.

Who is the priority group for vaccination?

In the Auckland region, particular effort is being made to vaccinate children, Pacific people, and those aged between 15 and 29 years to minimise the impact of this outbreak and the age at which the first dose of MMR is given has been moved from 15 months to 12 months.

In the rest of New Zealand, including the West Coast, there is no change at present to the National Immunisation Schedule, except for babies 12 months or older who are travelling to Auckland, who can bring their first MMR vaccination, usually given at 15 months, forward to 12 months. This may change as the national response to the Auckland outbreak evolves.

What happens if there’s been a case of measles in a school or workplace?

Health authorities will be in contact with any school or workplace where there has been a confirmed case and advise accordingly.

If there is a confirmed case and a risk of transmission, health authorities advise that those who are susceptible – including those who have never been vaccinated and those who have only had one vaccine – need to stay away until they are given the all clear.

As a general rule, a contact is someone who has been in the same room as a confirmed case or who has been in a room within one hour of a confirmed case being there.

More information about measles is available at http://www.immune.org.nz

For sharing this info with others we invite you to open the printer-friendly version of the above content

Tags

Related topics

Back to Health News

Page last updated: 6 April 2021

Is this page useful?