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

COVID-19 vaccination booking system error

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Sunday 28 March 2021Media 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.

Canterbury DHB is contacting individuals affected by a coding error in the software used in a local Canterbury appointment system used to book family members of border and MIQ workers for their COVID-19 vaccination.

This potentially allowed those invited to make appointments to view details about other individuals also making appointments, including name, gender, age, phone number and NHI number but no personal health information.

The appointment system was taken offline immediately once the error became known and remains offline until the issue is rectified and the system thoroughly tested.

Over the weekend the DHB is contacting all those potentially affected to apologise and inform them of the actions now being taken. 

The key concern of many of those contacted was that their booked vaccinations would go ahead as planned – which they will. A relatively small number of people were understandably upset. 

At this stage, there is no evidence of any malicious breach, further access to this information or sharing of it.

Individuals with questions or concerns about the booking system coding error should in the first instance ring Healthline on 0800 358 5453.

A national booking system, using different software to Canterbury’s interim booking system is currently being developed by the Ministry of Health to support scaling up of the vaccine programme.

ENDS

The Ministry of Health made two media statements on this issue which can be viewed online at www.health.govt.nz/news-media 

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Page last updated: 28 February 2024

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