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 can also read the additional COVID-19 related visiting guidelines .

Vaccinations for Chatham Islanders to kick off tomorrow

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Wednesday 30 June 2021Media 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.

Vaccinators Fiona Goodwin (left) and Robyn Preece (right)

Canterbury’s COVID-19 vaccination roll out is about to chalk up another major milestone with vaccinations starting on the remote Chatham Islands tomorrow, Thursday 1 July.

There are approximately 560 eligible residents on Chatham and Pitt Islands who are currently being invited to receive their vaccinations at the Chatham Islands Health Centre, and at Pitt Island School. Kuia and kaumatua will be among the first people to receive their vaccinations.

Senior Responsible Officer for the COVID-19 response in Canterbury, Ralph La Salle says rolling out vaccinations to the Chathams community is a huge undertaking and has provided the DHB with some logistical hurdles to overcome.

“Given the remote location of the islands and the small population, we are vaccinating the whole community at once because this is more efficient and will make best use of our resources.

“Getting the vaccine over to the islands has required an enormous amount of logistical planning, as will getting vaccines from the main island over to Pitt Island. We also needed to make sure we had trained vaccinators on the islands, says Ralph.

Chatham and Pitt Island residents are fortunate to have two fully-trained vaccinators, Robyn Preece (who farms on Chatham Island) and Fiona Goodwin, who have completed their training in Canterbury and will be carrying out all of the vaccinations.

Robyn says that while the community has been really lucky when it comes to COVID-19 so far, they can’t be complacent.

“We’re still very much at risk and we don’t want to find ourselves in a situation like Fiji. The best thing we can do to protect ourselves, our mokopuna, whānau and our whole community is to get vaccinated and I’m excited to be part of the team making this happen,” Robyn says.

The DHB continues to deliver its vaccination roll out to plan and delivering clinics in remote areas is an important part of the roll out’s current phase.

“We’re looking forward to rolling out vaccinations to this close-knit community so they can all do their bit to protect each other from the virus,” says Ralph.

For more information about the vaccine and the vaccine rollout, visit: https://vaccinatecanterburywestcoast.nz/.

ENDS

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Page last updated: 6 October 2021

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