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

West Coast DHB makes changes to visiting at its facilities following Alert level 2 announcement

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  3. West Coast DHB makes changes to visiting at its facilities following Alert level 2 announcement

Thursday 13 August 2020Health news3 minutes to read

Please attribute comment to Dr Graham Roper, Medical Director – West Coast District Health Board

Following New Zealand (apart from the greater Auckland region) moving to COVID-19 Alert Level 2, West Coast DHB has made changes to its visitor restrictions.

For all inpatient ward areas at Te Nīkau Hospital & Health Centre, there is now one visitor at a time but we are allowing more than one person to visit a patient each day during visiting hours. Each visitor can only visit once per day for a maximum of 15 minutes.

No visitors are allowed in to any of the Aged Residential Care facilities across the Coast, however visitors can visit our inpatient ward where our most vulnerable patients are or where patients are in isolation but this is confined to one visitor per patient per day. Exceptions may be made on compassionate grounds on a case-by-case basis for end of life care of patients who are not COVID-19 positive.

Visiting hours remain unchanged. For more information on the visitor guidance for each West Coast DHB health facility, please visit our website.

Our updated guidance is effective at all West Coast DHB facilities from today, Wednesday 12 August.

At Alert Level 2 the risk of COVID-19 being present in the community is higher. We are therefore asking all patients and visitors to wear their own masks if they have them when visiting our facilities.

Information on masks including how to wear them effectively is available on the Ministry of Health website – here.

From today, we will be recording the details of every visitor upon arrival. If you have the COVID-19 Contact Tracer App installed on your phone or device, please scan the QR code each time you enter one of our facilities. This helps make contact tracing easier.

As always, please don’t visit if you’re unwell and remember the usual public health precautions such as hand hygiene and physical distancing (wherever possible stay two metres away from people you don’t know, and one metre away from people you do know).

If you have COVID-19 symptoms (any acute respiratory infection with at least one of the following symptoms: new or worsening cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, stuffy or runny nose, lost sense of smell – with or without a fever) you should contact your General Practice team or call Healthline on 0800 358 5453. Most GP teams are offering testing if you have these symptoms.

If you are unwell and need to see a doctor you should call your usual GP team for advice 24/7. For general health information visit healthinfo.org.nz.

ENDS

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Page last updated: 13 August 2020

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