Christchurch Hospital is changing its visiting hours effective from tomorrow, Thursday 23 September.

Members of the public can currently visit between 3pm and 8pm.

From tomorrow visiting hours will revert to having public visiting from 11am – 1pm, then again from 3pm – 8pm seven days a week.

This will allow whānau and friends more options when it comes to visiting loved ones in hospital.

For our staff it will mean visiting is spread over a longer time period, seven hours, instead of the current five.

Christchurch Hospital Director of Nursing, Lynne Johnson says that the hope is that this will result in calmer wards and waiting areas.

“We know that having visitors can provide a highlight in someone’s day, but it can also be draining for our sick patients, so please be mindful of that when planning your visit.

“And please, stick to the one visitor at a time rule. We need space around each patient’s bed to practice safe physical distancing when providing care for our patients.

“Under Delta Alert Level 2 we are still only allowing one visitor at a time, but we are providing the public with more flexibility to choose a time that suits them, and this change will mean our patients can have a couple of hours ‘quiet time’ between 1pm and 3pm each day,” Lynne Johnson said.

All of the current rules still apply in terms of all visitors having to scan or sign in when they enter the building. Keeping a record of who enters our facilities is mandatory – it’s not an optional extra. We need this information for potential contact tracing in the future.

A quick recap of ‘the rules’:

• People shouldn’t come visiting our hospitals when they are sick.
• And all visitors need to wear a mask or face-covering – please bring your own.
• All visitors should practise good hand hygiene by using the hand gel provided when you enter and leave our facilities.
• All visitors are expected to practice safe physical distancing. You should remain two metres away from people you don’t know.
• One visitor at a time to visit a patient.
• For child patients, parents/caregivers can visit at any time, and both parents/caregivers can visit at the same time.
• Exceptions: Charge Nurse Managers can assess requests on a case by case basis. For example, exceptions will be considered on compassionate grounds including for end of life care.
• There are also some exceptions for people with disabilities. These are set out on our website

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