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

Spotting cancer early makes a difference

Friday 27 July 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.

Two people who have had head and neck cancers are encouraging others to be aware of their bodies and check out anything unusual.

Kathleen Campbell has had two cancers removed from inside her mouth. The first was a lump on her tongue four years ago, which Kathleen thought was a wart.

Her GP was concerned about the lump and referred her to a head and neck surgery specialist at Christchurch Hospital.

While Kathleen was waiting so see a specialist the lump kept growing so she consulted her GP again.

“My GP actually took a cellphone photo and sent it straight off to the specialist,” Kathleen says. The specialist saw her quickly, and a biopsy showed the lump was probably cancerous.

“They took out a wedge-shaped section of my tongue,” Kathleen says. “Thankfully it was caught early so I didn't need any chemo or radiation treatment.”

Last year Kathleen asked her GP to look at an ulcer that wasn't healing on the inside of her mouth. A specialist confirmed it was a cancer that had begun to eat into her jaw.

The second surgery was much more serious, requiring a piece of her jaw to be removed and be replaced with a piece of bone from her leg.

“Learning to talk and swallow were the toughest parts of my journey, and soon I hope to be able to eat food other than soft.”

Kathleen has recovered from her surgery, and wants other people to be vigilant against cancer.

“As soon as you suspect, get onto it, don't put it off. Both of mine were caught early because I didn't muck around. I listened to my body, I knew there was something wrong.”

Another patient, Bryan, was diagnosed with oropharyngeal cancer (a type of throat cancer) last year.

“I had a slight sensitivity in my neck that had developed into a lump,” he says.

Bryan's GP referred him to a specialist, who took a biopsy of the lump and diagnosed it as cancer.  He had six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation therapy at Christchurch Hospital.

“My neck was a bit of a mess, because radiotherapy burns the outside of your neck as well as the inside. That took six weeks or so from the end of treatment to heal up – I continued losing weight for several months.

And my eating was different. Even now, I have much less saliva in my mouth, so I have to be careful to eat moist food.”

Bryan had surgery and chemotherapy 10 years ago for an unrelated bowel cancer. He says that was found when he went to his GP and a dietician after having trouble eating.

“Here I am 10 years later still going strong, and I hope I'll stay around a bit longer. The trick is, if you feel that something is wrong with your body, you should get it checked.

“I know it costs money to go to a GP, but it's a relatively cheap price to pay for something that could absolutely destroy your life if you didn't get it checked.”

ENDS

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Page last updated: 19 October 2022

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