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

Waipapa’s new theatres all up and running

Monday 23 November 2020Media release2 minutes to read

The new hybrid operating theatre

Canterbury DHB’s new operating theatres in Waipapa, Christchurch Hospital have begun to be used as patients start to receive their surgery in the brand-new state of the art theatres, following a meticulous testing and audit process.

Perioperative Nurse Manager Marie Lory says the DHB’s perioperative teams are really excited to be making use of the new building with all of the new equipment.

“One of the new theatres is a hybrid operating theatre which combines state of the art imaging with operating capability. This means that surgeons can receive real time imaging to allow critical procedures like arterial stents to be inserted with very small incisions dramatically improving recovery times,” Marie says.

Perioperative is the term used to describe all services associated with a person having a surgical procedure, from booking through to pre-operative care, anaesthesia, surgery and recovery.

“While we will continue to use our existing theatre space in Christchurch Hospital, the new theatres in Waipapa will expand our capacity.

“With an ageing population and more operations performed each day, operating theatres are in high demand. The additional theatre capacity means that over time we will be able to bring more of our surgery back in house,” says Marie.

Surgical teams have been carrying out training in new theatres, in preparation for their use this month

The Orthopaedic and Anaesthesia teams were first to use the new theatres last week, with orthopaedic surgeon Gordon Beadel carrying out the first surgery on a wrist fracture.

Mr Beadel says the first surgery performed in Waipapa is monumental for the Canterbury Health System and the use of the new theatres signals an increase in the DHB’s ability to manage its acute trauma and injury load and perform more surgeries in its own facilities.

“Operating in the Waipapa theatre suite was a very pleasant experience and went very well thanks to a huge amount of work from a number of talented staff. This facility and its brand new theatres are a fantastic resource for our community and those who travel to Canterbury for surgery,” says Mr Beadel.

Tomorrow’s final patient moves will signal the completion of the DHB’s relocation to the new Waipapa facility.

ENDS

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Page last updated: 23 November 2020

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