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

The pour to end all pours

Thursday 5 November 2015Media 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.

The Canterbury District Health Board and Fletcher Construction will begin the concrete pour to end all pours, starting in the very early hours of this Saturday morning (November 7).

This is the last and the largest in a series of nine pours, which began four months ago (July 25, this year), to build the foundation slab for the new Acute Services Building (ASB) at Christchurch Hospital.

David Meates, Canterbury DHB chief executive, says the final pour will be the largest continuous concrete pour using a single concrete supplier in the South Island.

Starting at 1am on Saturday, 7 November, subcontractors Firth Concrete will take about 12 hours to pour around 2,300m3 of concrete through four pumps – some 360 truckloads in total.

“With a building footprint of 10,450m2 and a foundation slab that's swallowed over 15,000m3 of concrete, the new Acute Services building will be the South Island's largest hospital building,” Mr Meates say.

“Once complete, the 10-storey building will have additional operating theatres, around 400 inpatient beds, purpose-designed spaces for children, extended radiology department, an expanded intensive care unit, an emergency department, and a rooftop helipad.

“The building is being built to IL4 (Importance Level 4) standards, or 180 percent of the building code – the highest level for a building designated to be an essential facility and be up and running after a disaster.”

The foundations will be base-isolated to give protection from seismic events.

“Some 2,300 tonnes of reinforcing steel has been used in the slab and in the columns on which the base isolators will sit,” Mr Meates says.

Mr Meates and Board deputy chair, Steve Wakefield will be present at the Fletcher Construction crew BBQ on Saturday morning at 6.30am to help serve breakfast to the well-deserving foundation workers.​

ENDS

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Page last updated: 19 October 2022

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