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

International health leaders visit Christchurch for The Lab Meeting

Wednesday 9 May 2018Media 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.

International leaders in health laboratories and the wider health field are attending a conference in Christchurch this week.

The annual conference, organised by Canterbury Health Laboratories, will focus on topics across the health and technology disciplines.

Speakers include Canterbury and New Zealand health leaders as well as special international guests:

Dr Jacqui Lunday Johnstone – Chief Health Professions Officer in Scottish Government

Dr Jacqui Lunday Johnstone represents the 64 allied health and healthcare science disciplines, advising government ministers of professional, regulatory, educational, and service issues the disciplines face.

“Within a government department, the people who lead on policy creation are often civil servants, so they don’t always come with subject matter expertise, they come with policy-making skills,” she says.

“So I would help to give them a steer, help connect them with people with subject matter expertise, or I would help them shape the policy in partnership in terms of informing their thinking.”

Jacqui has served in Scottish Government for 16 years, in which time there have been three administration changes and five Cabinet Secretaries for Health and Wellbeing.

She is speaking at The LAB Meeting about policy developed in Scotland to increase the visibility of healthcare scientists.

“The healthcare scientists themselves in Scotland only make up 5 percent of the clinical workforce, but they contribute to 80 percent of the diagnosis. So they punch significantly above their weight,” Jacqui says.

“We have hopefully helped workforce planners, decision makers and professional leaders outside of healthcare science to have a better understanding of the value that they bring.”

Margo Ward – Founder and CEO at KidsXpress

Margo Ward pioneered play therapy in Australia at the Sydney Children’s Hospital.

For the last 14 years, she has helmed KidsXpress, a Sydney-based not-for-profit organisation treating childhood trauma with play therapy and other expressive therapy practices.

External reviews of KidsXpress show it has a significant psychological impact on the children it works with, and that for every dollar invested in the organisation, it returns $2.76 in benefit to society.

“I don’t want a feel-good programme, I want a programme that has impact,” Margo says.

KidsXpress has recently expanded is operations and acquired a training programme, with the intention of working with caregivers as well as children.

The organisation still has fewer than 25 employees, but Margo says she had to adapt to changes to the company’s culture.

She is presenting at The LAB Meeting on the subject of culture development and talent retention.

ENDS

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Page last updated: 19 October 2022

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