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

Growing delicious communities together

Friday 19 August 2016Media 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 is on its way to being more food resilient, as more than 50 schools embrace creating awesome community gardens and food forests.

The gardens at St Bernadette's in Hei Hei are among them, with its gardens set to flourish as it gets ready to plant 30 heritage apple saplings, which include a mixture of cooking and eating apples.

Janne Pasco, Canterbury DHB Community Nutrition Advisor and member of the Food Resilience Network, says network members, lead by Krystina Hill, have grafted 100 different heritage apple varieties with 500 saplings in total over the past year, which will be planted at St Bernadette's and a number of other schools over the coming month.

“The community support has been fantastic. We've had trees donated from the Horticultural Society, from Waimea Nurseries and of course the heritage fruit tree archive here in Canterbury.

“Pears, peaches and plum trees will be next to be planted as the gardens start to thrive.”

Janne says the project is also part of Health Promoting Schools programme.

“A lot of children think all of their food just comes from the supermarket and they don't connect the fact that vegetables grow from seeds planted in the ground and that they can do this,” Janne says.

“Creating edible community gardens helps food security and also teaches children where their fruit and vegetables come from.”

Shirley Primary School pupils certainly know about planting pumpkin seeds and harvesting their prize pumpkins after six months of nurturing.

“Creating community gardens, especially at local schools, brings enormous benefit for everyone involved.”

It also helps to meet the five ways to wellbeing, Janne says.

“You're connecting, giving, taking notice, learning and being active – it's one way to do it all.”

St Bernadette's principal Graeme Norman is a keen gardener and says we need to get people back to the cheaper and healthier option of growing their own food.

“Teaching children where their food comes from and to grow their own vegies and fruit is the start,” Principal Norman says.

“We are hoping that not only will our garden and orchard provide food for our community but also provide a place where the community can gather and get to know one another.”

The apple tree planting will be held at 1pm, Monday August 22, 2016, at St Bernadette's Primary School, 74 Hei Hei Road, Hei Hei.

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Page last updated: 19 October 2022

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