Reopening Waitaha’s Rural Hospitals

Rural hospitals at Ellesmere, Waikari and Darfield are planned to reopen on 31 October 2022.

The closure of the rural hospitals, including Oxford, was a temporary measure due to the challenges in providing safe staffing during the COVID-19 Omicron outbreak. Oxford Hospital reopened in June.

Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Executive Director of Nursing Becky Hickmott says staff are delighted to be returning to their normal place of work and are looking forward to providing services again in their local rural communities

“These rural hospitals are small local facilities that provide mainly aged residential care to people, such as respite care and palliative care, allowing them to remain in their own communities,” says Becky Hickmott.

“We appreciate that relocating older people is disruptive and that the closure has been hard for some of our residents and their whānau. Importantly, we needed to ensure our residents were living somewhere that had the staff resources to make sure they were well looked after during the pandemic.”

“Te Whatu Ora Waitaha is committed to investing in rural communities and we will continue work in partnership with them, and our staff who know their communities best, to continue to develop the service model of these facilities based on modern, evidence-based practice.”

Hurunui Mayor Marie Black says she is thrilled to see the rural hospitals reopening, allowing these facilities to continue to deliver exceptional care to the community. Mayor Black has been a strong advocate for the Hospitals and the services they provide.

“Mayors and friends of the rural hospitals have worked in collaboration with Te Whatu Ora to get to this point and I know that our communities will be really happy to see these unique facilities reopened,” says Mayor Black.

“Our community hospitals are so important, they are truly cherished facilities. I’m grateful that our collaborative work has allowed them to reopen,’ added Selwyn Mayor Sam Broughton.

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