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

Tupuna services to cease and sights set on new ways of working to support tāngata whaiora

Friday 2 December 2022Media release5 minutes to read

THIS IS AN ARCHIVED PAGE. The advice and information contained in this page may not be current and it should only be used for historical reference purposes.

To be attributed to Dr Greg Hamilton, Canterbury General Manager Specialist Mental Health Service, Te Whatu Ora.

Following an extensive consultation process where feedback was received from 47 submitters, a decision has been made to close the small Tupuna Unit on the Hillmorton Campus.

Tupuna is currently an inpatient extended care unit which provides 24-hour care and support for people with mental health issues who require longer term inpatient stays as they prepare to return to the community. 

Staff and the nine tāngata whaiora (people seeking wellness) currently receiving care and support at Tupuna have been informed of this decision. The focus is now on supporting staff to transition to new roles within the Specialist Mental Health Service and working closely with tāngata whaiora and their whānau to find alternative care and support options both in the community or in other inpatient services.

There is no fixed time-frame for tāngata whaiora to move, it will happen over coming weeks to ensure services are well matched to people’s needs.

Tupuna’s bed numbers have been reduced this year due to difficulties sustaining an appropriate staff mix in the unit.  The unit currently has 13.6 FTE and has been relying on casual staff and nurses working additional duties to staff the unit. Despite staff’s best efforts we acknowledge that we haven’t able to provide consistent staffing due to workforce challenges that are impacting all our services.

Once closed, the building where Tupuna is located will be refreshed and it’s expected to be ready to accommodate up to 16 patients by the end of August 2023 in a more contemporary environment. 

What is yet to be finalised is the new model of care for acute inpatients across the continuum of adult care – this work is underway. However it’s planned that this unit will continue to be one of three inpatient facilities on the Hillmorton Campus available for those needing adult inpatient care.

The welcome news this week confirming the funding for the new adult inpatient unit (to replace the current Te Awakura unit) means planning can start on another new facility to support contemporary care on the Hillmorton Campus.

Work on Building 12, which will house adult inpatients moving from The Princess Margaret Hospital, is progressing well and on track for completion next year.  These two buildings, along with Building 8 (currently housing Tupuna) will provide three facilities on the Hillmorton Campus for adult inpatients that will help transform and improve the experience of tangata whaiora receiving inpatient care.

In addition to modern fit for purpose inpatient beds, it is important that people are able to access intensive support in the community including inpatient alternative such as home-based treatment, community-based respite and peer-led alternatives.  There are a number of new and developing initiatives underway to improve access to mental health and wellbeing support in the community and develop this integration including the general practice-based Te Tumu Waiora (with almost 60 FTE of health improvement practitioners, health coaches and support workers).

ENDS

Background information

Plans for current inpatients

Of the nine current inpatients, four already have a staged discharge plan in place which will see them living back in the community with appropriate supports. The team will continue to work closely with consumers and their families to ensure all options and pathways are considered. There may be some who will need ongoing specialist support which may include extended care in another inpatient unit while we continue to assess their clinical need and engage with them and their whānau to work towards new homes with community providers where possible.

Hillmorton Campus Masterplan 

These projects are part of the Government’s Mental Health Infrastructure Programme and combined, the Hillmorton Campus projects have a budget of over $200 million.

Work currently underway on the Hillmorton Campus includes:

Building 14 which will house the Eating Disorders and Mothers and Babies Inpatient and Community Outpatient Services, Child Adolescent and Family Inpatient Services and Day Programme, and the Southern Health School currently based at The Princess Margaret Hospital.

Building 12 is a facility to support extended treatments and will house Adult Inpatient Services currently provided in the Seager Clinic based at TPMH

In addition, structural strengthening is underway on the former laundry building near the campus which is being repurposed into a modern, fit-for-purpose community outpatient facility for providing Child and Youth Mental Health facilities. This is being partially supported by Māia Health Foundation funds.

There will also be an Energy Centre building that will utilise ground source heat pumps (the ground source heat pumps are part of our journey towards being carbon neutral, with the support of EECA funding).

A future tranche is planned to include a new facility for forensic mental health facilities.

The Hillmorton campus is on a journey called Te Huarahi Hou. The journey will see many buildings and facilities improved, modernised and transformed as part of a masterplan to ensure it will meet the needs of our community, and support staff to deliver contemporary mental health care and support people’s treatment and recovery.

Future services will have three Hillmorton-based units to provide for the needs of people from acute to rehabilitation. The focus will be on therapy and functional enablement to provide the skills and supports for living in community. For those requiring extended care, therapeutic approaches will be provided by a more diverse workforce, including more use of allied health staff and kaiāwhina.

Feedback received

Consultation feedback included comments about tangata whaiora needs, health inequities, the impact on beds, flow and service pressures, staffing, the model of care and buildings and facilities.

Media contact:

Julia Goode, Senior Media Advisor, Kaitohutohu Whakawhiti-Kōrero Mātāmua

021 223 2141 communications@cdhb.health.nz

Tags

Related topics

Back to Health News

Page last updated: 14 February 2023

Is this page useful?