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

Te Kōunga o Te Hiringa Gary Coghlan Studentship Programme 2025

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Tuesday 11 February 2025Health news3 minutes to read

Te Kōunga o Te Hiringa Gary Coghlan Studentships are open to students interested in working in rural health, who either reside on, have strong links to, or whakapapa to Te Tai o Poutini/West Coast.

Over the past four weeks, our six 2025 students have been working in two separate groups to complete two health focused projects.

  • Ka Ora Telecare – health care from home: the purpose is to gather whānau and consumer voice to determine if Ka Ora Telehealth is an appropriate service for West Coast residents and visitors and to ascertain if it is meeting equity requirements. This West Coast Health (PHO) lead project will include checking whether people know how to access healthcare afterhours, seeking qualitative feedback from users of Ka Ora and assessing whether Ka Ora is an equitable service for Māori particularly but also other equity populations.
  • MyIndici: the purpose is to investigate if South Westland Area Practice enrolment numbers are impacted or influenced by external factors e.g., health literacy, computer literacy, financial and/or rural barriers with a view to determining how to increase the update of MyIndici enrolments.

They presented their findings to our local leadership group last week.

The Studentship Programme was renamed in 2023 to honour the memory of Gary Coghlan. Gary was one of the country's longest-serving General Managers in Hauora Māori. He was a former chair of Tumu Whakarae, the National Reference Group of Māori Managers within District Health Boards, as well as a former Deputy Chair of Tai Poutini Polytechnic. Gary continually challenged the health system to deliver equitable outcomes for Māori and actively promoted cultural competencies in mainstream health systems.  He was recognised as one of the key contributors to reforms within the health system and in developing rural health initiatives on the West Coast.

Gary was passionate about workforce development and was instrumental in developing the Studentship Programme. He promoted all programmes that gave rangatahi the opportunity to experience first-hand what life could be like working in the health system across the West Coast. The renaming of the studentship recognises the impact and presence he held during his 25 years working across Hauora at Te Whatu Ora, Te Tai o Poutini.

ENDS

Photo: (L to R) 2025 Te Kōunga o Te Hiringa Gary Coghlan Studentship recipients Samantha Bergin, Cleo Beynon, Paris Jackson-Roberts, Levee Lancaster, Iris Reynolds and Cameron Dickie.

Media contact: hnzmedia@tewhatuora.govt.nz

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Page last updated: 11 February 2025

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