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

28 day partial strike by psychologists who are members of the APEX union

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Wednesday 4 September 2019Media release2 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.
he partial strike by psychologists who are members of the APEX union means group work with patients will cease and no new patients will be accepted

The partial strike by psychologists who are members of the APEX union means group work with patients will cease and no new patients will be accepted

Psychologists who are members of the APEX union plan to carry out a partial strike for 28 days from 8am tomorrow [Tuesday 3 September] until 8am on Tuesday 1 October 2019.  During the period of industrial action psychologists at Canterbury DHB (excluding intern psychologists) will not participate in group work with patients; and they will not accept new patients onto their caseload.  They will however, continue with their other duties.

Canterbury DHB employs 129 psychologists, and around 106 are members of the APEX union. They work in services such as specialist mental health services, diabetes, child health, respiratory and cardiology services, oncology [Cancer care], nephrology [dialysis and kidney transplants], older persons’ health and rehabilitation and are based at Christchurch Hospital, Burwood Hospital, Hillmorton Campus, The Princess Margaret Hospital and in a range of community settings.

Canterbury DHB Director of Allied Health, Jacqui Lunday Johnstone, said anyone who has a pre-booked group appointment with a DHB psychologist that has had to be postponed and rescheduled due to the strike, will be contacted by phone, then receive a follow up letter detailing their rescheduled appointment.

We expect more than 300 people will be affected by having either their group or individual appointment rescheduled until after the strike.

As part of our contingency plans we will be utilising other appropriately trained and experienced clinicians to run some group sessions and to see some new patients as part of their caseload.

“We respect the right of our staff to strike and I apologise in advance for the inconvenience caused by these changes to our usual service,” Jacqui Lunday Johnstone said.  

ENDS

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Page last updated: 19 August 2021

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