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

Healthy Lifestyles programme redesigned

Tuesday 19 July 2022Media 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.

Te Whatu Ora – Waitaha Canterbury has announced a redesign for the Healthy Lifestyles programme for our district.

The new Healthy Lifestyles|Pae Ora programme will be provided by Waitaha Primary Health, Tangata Atumotu Trust, Whānau Whanake and Purapura Whetu Trust. Healthy Lifestyles is about supporting our community to achieve improved health and wellbeing and reducing the burden of disease on those with long term health conditions.

Tracey Maisey, Executive Director Planning, Funding and Decision Support, says that changes have been made as a result of a thorough co-design process with the community, and the new services will reflect the findings of that positive engagement.

“This was, for us, a different way of commissioning providers, and one where we listened to consumers and were guided by their feedback,” says Tracey Maisey.

“With the shift to Te Whata Ora – Health New Zealand, this was, for us, an exciting opportunity to work differently with our providers, and their feedback has been instrumental in guiding our approach.

“It became clear that we needed to provide a more holistic, collaborative and culturally responsive whānau/family partnership approach, targeted at our priority populations.” 

Pae Ora ki Waitaha, a working group of the Population and Health Service Level Alliance, held extensive community consultation with our Māori, Pacific, youth, disability, rainbow, older persons and refugee communities, as well as with clinicians across the health system, to understand what was needed in an equitable health system and to determine the principles and criteria needed for the new service.

Te Whatu Ora – Waitaha Canterbury then ran a Request for Proposal process and a new service model was drafted with the providers which will enhance our ability to provide culturally engaging, responsive, accessible and whānau-centred services.

Waitaha Primary Health Chief Executive Bill Eschenbach is delighted to be part of the new Healthy Lifestyles|Pae Ora Service.

“A health assistant will be assigned to a client and will work alongside them and their whānau to set their own goals which will help them to move toward their dreams and aspirations of living a healthy lifestyle.

“Our Whānau Ora approach will support our clients to remove barriers to achieving a healthy lifestyle and achieve sustainable intergenerational change.” 

Karaitiana Tickell, Kaiwhakahaere of the Purapura Whetu Trust, adds that the service aims to unleash the full potential of the whānau who access it.

“We are all excited to work together to provide the best support and encouragement we can which identifies the needs of our clients and is unique to them, as well as being culturally-informed and relevant for the life they lead.”

The new referrals process is currently being finalised with the new providers and further information on making referrals to the new service will be provided to primary care in August through Canterbury HealthPathways. The new providers will be in place by September 2022. 

ENDS

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Page last updated: 5 October 2022

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