VISITING HOSPITAL

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

Last updated:
31 October 2024

Some visitor restrictions for all Health New Zealand | 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 we encourage 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 are advised to not visit our facilities if they are unwell. We advise that you 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 encouraged to be worn at all sites. Masks will be provided if you don’t have one.
  • Please practice hand hygiene with provided alcohol-based hand rub/gel

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 a surgical mask as a minimum – please use surgical masks provided.

All of our Hospitals

Visiting hours for our hospitals have returned to pre COVID-19 hours.

All visitors are encouraged to wear a medical face mask.

Parents/caregivers can be with their child in hospital and visitors are now allowed, except for the Children’s Haematology and Oncology Day stay where visitor restrictions might apply.

Patients and visitors can also read the additional COVID-19 related visiting guidelines .

Canterbury DHB makes changes to visiting hours

Wednesday 22 September 2021Media release3 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THIS IS AN ARCHIVED PAGE. The advice and information contained in this page may not be current and it should only be used for historical reference purposes.
Information for visitors and patients at COVID-19 alert level 4

Updated information for visitors and patients at COVID-19 Delta Alert Level 2

Christchurch Hospital is changing its visiting hours effective from tomorrow, Thursday 23 September.

Members of the public can currently visit between 3pm and 8pm.

From tomorrow visiting hours will revert to having public visiting from 11am – 1pm, then again from 3pm to 8pm seven days a week.

This will allow whānau and friends more options when it comes to visiting loved ones in hospital.

For our staff it will mean visiting is spread over a longer time period, seven hours, instead of the current five.

Christchurch Hospital Director of Nursing, Lynne Johnson says that the hope is that this will result in calmer wards and waiting areas.

“We know that having visitors can provide a highlight in someone’s day, but it can also be draining for our sick patients, so please be mindful of that when planning your visit.

“And please, stick to the one visitor at a time rule. We need space around each patient’s bed to practice safe physical distancing when providing care for our patients.

“Under Delta Alert Level 2 we are still only allowing one visitor at a time, but we are providing the public with more flexibility to choose a time that suits them, and this change will mean our patients can have a couple of hours ‘quiet time’ between 1pm and 3pm each day,” Lynne Johnson said.

All of the current rules still apply in terms of all visitors having to scan or sign in when they enter the building. Keeping a record of who enters our facilities is mandatory – it’s not an optional extra. We need this information for potential contact tracing in the future.

A quick recap of ‘the rules’:

  • People shouldn’t come visiting our hospitals when they are sick.
  • And all visitors need to wear a mask or face-covering – please bring your own.
  • All visitors should practise good hand hygiene by using the hand gel provided when you enter and leave our facilities.
  • All visitors are expected to practice safe physical distancing. You should remain two metres away from people you don’t know.
  • One visitor at a time to visit a patient.
  • For child patients, parents/caregivers can visit at any time, and both parents/caregivers can visit at the same time.
  • Exceptions: Charge Nurse Managers can assess requests on a case by case basis. For example, exceptions will be considered on compassionate grounds including for end of life care.
  • There are also some exceptions for people with disabilities. These are set out on our website

ENDS

Tags

Related topics

Back to Health News

Page last updated: 1 November 2021

Is this page useful?