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

Improving patient care the focus of Annual Quality Awards

Monday 17 December 2018Media 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.
Supreme Award winners accepting their award for the Focus on eyes: Delivering patient treatment on time project

Supreme Award winners accepting their award for the Focus on eyes: Delivering patient treatment on time project

The recent Canterbury Health System Quality Improvement and Innovation Awards recognised and showcased how changes have been made to improve the quality of health care.

Chief Executive David Meates said he was excited by the improvements happening in the Canterbury Health System. 

“These annual awards are an important event on our health system calendar, and sharing and celebrating the teams’ successes is so important,” he said.

“This year, 48 teams from across the Canterbury Health System entered the Awards, on topics ranging from valuing patients’ time by reducing appointment and waiting times and changing radiology techniques to make the patients’ experience better, right through to improving mental health and enhancing palliative care.

“Eleven awards were presented, with the Supreme Award, going to the team behind the Focus on eyes: Delivering patient treatment on time project, which addressed concerns about overdue national Ophthalmology follow-up times for people diagnosed with eye disease,” David Meates said.

Eye Service Manager Ali Watkins says, “starting in June 2017, the Canterbury Eye Service held more than 100 outpatient clinics, including evenings, weekends and during last year’s Christmas break. They also reviewed and improved the quality of the Eye Service’s data. The overall result was that the team reduced the overdue Ophthalmology follow-up waiting list of 3,453 patients down to 719 in one year.”

The Eye Service’s waiting list project also won the Improved Quality, Safety and Experience of Care Award for improving its service to patients.

“Every discipline within the Service came together for this project. In addition, Canterbury DHB’s Decision Support team helped design a data reporting tool that was meaningful for our team ─ what gets measured gets changed. The project led us to look beyond our waitlist and have greater scrutiny of the whole Service.

“Looking to improve one area led to looking to improve other areas too,” Ali says.

ENDS

For more information, contact:
Canterbury DHB Media Advisor
027 567 5343

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Page last updated: 19 October 2022

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