VISITING HOSPITAL

All hospital visitors are recommended to wear a medical face mask. Expand this message for information about visiting hospital.

Last updated:
13 March 2023

Some visitor restrictions for all Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury hospitals and health facilities remain in place, but we have relaxed others.

There is still a heightened risk to vulnerable people in hospital and so we recommend all people wear a mask when visiting any of our facilities and follow other advice designed to keep patients, staff and  visitors safe.

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 may have more than one visitor, except in some situations such as multi-bed rooms where it can cause overcrowding.
  • Surgical/medical masks are recommended to be worn at all sites. Masks will be provided if you don’t have one.
  • For Specialist Mental Health Services everyone is strongly encouraged to wear a face mask in all inpatient areas and areas where consumers are receiving care (i.e. community appointments, home-visits, transporting people). Discretion may be applied in cases where masks impair your ability to communicate effectively.
  • Visitors must not eat or drink in multibed rooms because of the increased risk when multiple people remove their face 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.

Visiting patients with COVID-19

  • People can 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.

All of our Hospitals

Visiting hours for our hospitals have returned to pre COVID-19 hours with the exception of Christchurch Women’s Hospital.

All visitors are recommended to wear a medical face mask.

Parents/caregivers are able to be with their child in hospital and visitors are now allowed, except for the Children’s Haematology and Oncology Day stay where just one parent/caregiver is able to attend their appointment with their child. Exceptions by special arrangement only.

Patients and visitors should also read the additional more detailed visiting guidelines for each specific hospital.

More COVID-19 information

Māori and Pasifika Health

Māori and Pasifika Health Providers in Canterbury

A list of Māori and Pasifika health service providers are available in our Health Services Directory

​​Te Whatu OraHealth New Zealand Waitaha/Canterbury is committed to a programme of actions and activities aimed at improving Māori and Pasifika health outcomes.

For more information about national health programmes, please visit the Maori health and Pacific health sections in the Te Whatu Ora national website.

Māori hospital based health services in Waitaha/Canterbury

Ngā Ratonga Hauora Māori / Christchurch Hospital & Christchurch Women's Hospital

Ngā Ratonga Hauora Māori is about the wellbeing of Te Iwi Māori. There is a dedicated team of experienced and qualified Māori and non-Māori health workers and registered professionals who are responsive to Māori health needs.

Te Whare Toa Takitini / Burwood

Ranga Hauora service at Burwood Hospital / Te Whare Toa Takitini recognises the significance of ensuring patients/tangata whaiora feel at ease when receiving care. The service identifies cultural issues when working with whānau, hapū and iwi and enables staff to access the support and resources available to meet their cultural needs.

Mental Health

The philosophy of the Māori Mental Health Service is Whanaungatanga – a concept that stresses the importance of family and that nothing is done in isolation but as part of a member of a whanau. Māori mental health workers make up a multidisciplinary clinical team that works hard to improve the delivery and quality of health services to tangata whaiora / Māori consumers of mental health services.

Background and rationale

Canterbury Health service providers Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB), Primary Health Organisations (PHOs) and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) aspire to achieving equitable health outcomes for Māori and support Māori families to flourish and achieve their maximum health and wellbeing[3]. In addition, the CDHB and PHOs are required to have plans for Māori health.

Although each organisation is striving to contribute to these aspirations, there have been barriers to achieving their goals. One of these is that while we are on the same boat, there has not been a strong sense that we are all paddling in the same direction. To date plans have not been coordinated and there has been limited collective effort to achieve shared outcomes.

Following a series of discussions between the CDHB and PHOs, a strong commitment has developed between these parties to have an overarching framework that identifies shared outcomes and priority areas, acts as a basis for organisation work plans and encourages collective efforts that make a difference for Māori whānau.

Purpose

The purpose of the Canterbury Māori Health Framework is to establish shared outcomes, shared priority areas, shared language and common understanding so that we can better achieve our goal of health equity for Māori by paddling the waka in the same direction and in unison.

Governance of the framework

Te Kāhui o Papaki Ka Tai and Manawhenua ki Waitaha.

Partners in the framework

In the first instance the partners in this framework are those that are required by legislation to have a Māori health plan: the CDHB and divisions of the CDHB (Community and Public Health) and Primary Care Organisations (Rural Canterbury, Christchurch PHO and Pegasus Health). The intention is to be fully inclusive and to widen this partnership to include other partners such as Non Government Organisations.

The framework

The framework is an outcomes framework. That is, the framework identifies the various layers of activities and strategies that contribute to our shared outcomes of equitable health outcomes and improved quality of life for Māori. The framework also identifies indicators that we can use to measure progress towards and achievement of the shared outcomes (see Appendix 2: Māori Health Framework with indicators to see details of indicators).

 

Priority areas

There are many areas of focus that our collective actions could contribute to. It was decided that in the first instance that the areas of focus would be those where there were differentials in access or outcomes for Māori, where indicators existed that were readily measureable in order to determine progress and a particular focus would be placed on vulnerable child and youth:

  • HPV immunisation coverage
  • B4 School Check coverage
  • cervical screening rates
  • child/youth oral health

How this framework will work

Partners in this framework will:

  • Develop organisational work plans that are based on the framework and priority areas
  • Work together to achieve the improvement in shared priority areas
  • Be open to new ways of working to achieve outcomes
  • Undertake to have good communication and regularly report on progress

Review the framework annually late (October/November) in the year so it may be linked to the plans of the partners for the following year.

Page last updated: 14 November 2023

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