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

Online form now available for expressions of interest to work in the health system

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  3. Online form now available for expressions of interest to work in the health system

Monday 6 April 2020Health news2 minutes to read

Canterbury and West Coast DHBs have made it easy for people to submit an expression of interest if they are not already employed by the DHBs but want to put their hand up and contribute to the COVID-19 response.

This has been set up to provide support to both the Canterbury and the West Coast Health systems.

“We’ve already received lots of offers of help from people who are willing to support our health system and now we’re actively inviting people to submit their interest through an online form to ensure any offers are captured in one place,” says Chief People Officer Michael Frampton.

“Whether you’re a clinician, student, or someone who just wants to help out in some way, we invite you to go online and submit your information and we’ll be in touch with relevant opportunities when they come up.”

When people go to register online, they can apply by selecting the form that best suits their qualifications and experience from the following options:
• Clinical support roles – for example, doctors, registered nurses, allied health, health care assistants, students and so on
• Non-clinical support roles – for example, cleaners, administrators, human resources professionals, information technology workers, hospitality staff, or anyone who just wants to help out.

“We’d like to hear from anyone who wants to help out and we encourage people to let their friends, families, whānau and networks know about this opportunity as well,” he said.

The form is available to complete on the Canterbury DHB Careers website here, and is for expressions of interest for both Canterbury and West Coast DHBs.

“Once someone has submitted their interest, we’ll get in touch if we have a short, fixed-term role available based on their skills and the DHBs’ needs. Appropriate training and oversight will be provided to ensure safe practice,” Michael Frampton said.

ENDS

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Page last updated: 6 April 2020

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