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

Site blessing and ground breaking for Christchurch Outpatients Building

Monday 18 July 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 District Health Board Chair, Murray Cleverley, and the Christchurch Hospital chaplains led a site blessing and ground breaking ceremony this morning, (Monday, 18 July) on the site of the new Christchurch Outpatients building.

Leighs construction won the construction contract for the build and will be soon starting site preparation works for the five storey, 10,500m2 outpatients facility. The project team and consumer groups are working through the final stages of detailed design, ahead of the main build starting. The project is expected to be completed in 2018.

The new outpatient facility is located in the Health Precinct on St Andrew's triangle, directly opposite Christchurch Hospital and close to a proposed Bus Super Stop.

The land was formerly the site of the Presbyterian St Andrew's Church that first opened in 1857. The church was relocated to Rangi Ruru School in 1987 and because of the historical significance of the location, an archaeologist will be on site during the initial ground scraping works.

Murray Cleverley, Canterbury DHB Board chair and member of the Hospitals Redevelopment Partnership Group, says he is delighted with the progress of the Christchurch Outpatients.

“A completed new facility will be major achievement as part of the bigger Christchurch Hospital redevelopment picture,” Mr Cleverley says.

“The new outpatient facility will finally bring together again a number of general consultation clinics and provide for the delivery of a range of services that have been dispersed across Canterbury DHB sites since the Canterbury quakes significantly damaged a number of our health facilities,” he says.

Currently most outpatient clinics are temporarily housed in Hagley Outpatients, a facility built in just 100 post-quake days. Once the new outpatients' facility is open, part of the Hagley Outpatients building will be relocated, as planned, to find a second lease of life as part of Rangiora's new Health Hub.

Dr Rob Ojala, Canterbury DHB clinical lead for facilities redevelopment, says the emphasis is for the new outpatients facility to support integrated specialist community care.

“This will help patients gain access to the specialist care they need outside of the more traditional hospital-based care environment,” Dr Ojala says.

“I want to thank all of the staff including clinical teams, and contractors who have already made significant contributions in terms of their time, commitment and expertise to get us to this stage,” Mr Cleverley says.

ENDS

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Page last updated: 19 October 2022

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