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 focuses on falls prevention

Thursday 10 November 2016Media release2 minutes to read

The number of falls experienced by patients of the West Coast health system shows there is more preventative work to be done in this area, West Coast DHB Chief Executive David Meates says.

A Health Quality & Safety Commission (HQSC) New Zealand report ‘Making Our Hospitals Safer' released today shows eight incidents in the year to the end of June 2016, five of which were falls-related.  Two other events were due to errors around clinical process, and the remaining event was a surgical injury that occurred during a procedure.

“We can see that even though we have several initiatives around preventing falls, we have some work to do.  Falls can be very serious for those whose health is fragile.  Over the past few months we've introduced a new Falls Prevention Service, more training and education, more published information for patients and their families and clinicians.  We absolutely need to continue to focus our efforts on reducing patient falls both in health facilities and in the community,” Mr Meates says.

He says it was important staff continued to report any event where patient safety and health was compromised.

“Preventing adverse events relies on our continued efforts to review and learn from mistakes when they happen.  It's important staff feel supported to speak up for us to improve what we're doing, or learn from what went wrong.

“Ensuring we remain transparent and have an open reporting culture is key to us being able to make the necessary changes to ensure the same thing doesn't happen again.”

Mr Meates says when harm does occur, it's never easy for those involved.

“Our staff come to work every day with the aim of improving people's health. If a patient's condition deteriorates unexpectedly and suddenly, it can have a devastating effect,” he says.  “We have an obligation to our patients, their family and whanau to be open and transparent and be honest about the care we've provided – even if it hasn't gone to plan.”

The HQSC report can be accessed via the Health Quality and Safety Commission website..  The report on the West Coast DHB's serious adverse events can be viewed here.

ends

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Page last updated: 6 May 2019

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