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 Board endorses Buller Health facility concept design

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Wednesday 22 May 2019Facilities News2 minutes to read

Please attribute to David Meates, Chief Executive

Artist impressions - New Buller Health Facility

West Coast DHB’s Board endorsed the final Buller Health facility concept design at their Friday, 10 May meeting. The final design incorporates changes requested by user groups following re-engagement with Buller staff by the design team and West Coast DHB Facilities Redevelopment team earlier this month.

The concept design incorporates a new roof layout which the project architects and engineers worked on during the re-engagement phase. The new roof layout provides additional space within the footprint of the main hospital allowing for the utility areas and storage spaces previously in an ‘out-building’ to be accommodated within the facility itself.

The final floor plan is now 2,290m2 and includes all services, storage spaces and utility areas located within the facility itself. The previous iteration of the Buller Health Centre floor plan had a floor size of 2213m² with an additional 68m² utility building (total 2,281m2), which included storage spaces and utility areas.

The facilities mock-up room space is expected to be established mid-year in an existing building which is a large utility shed/garage on the Buller Health campus. The space will have moveable walls, or tape on the floor to indicate the space available to perform certain tasks.

The proximity to the existing facility will allow Buller staff to fully engage in the next phases of preliminary, developed and detailed design. There will be a number of opportunities for staff, patients/consumers and the wider community to ‘test’ the layout of the various rooms to ensure that they are functional and fit for purpose. We anticipate that the design will be completed by October 2019.

Construction registration of interest will be sought during September 2019 with the construction contract to be let in January 2020. Demolition and construction associated with the new facility is expected to take 550 days with occupation of the new facility expected by September 2021.

ENDS

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Page last updated: 22 May 2019

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