HOSPITAL VISITING

All hospital visitors are recommended to wear a medical face mask. For more information about visiting: Visitors and family. See our COVID-19 page for general COVID-19 advice, detailed hospital visiting guidelines and COVID-19 tests.

See West Coast COVID-19 vaccination clinics for info on vaccinations link COVID-19 Vaccination • West Coast • Healthpoint

Last updated:
16 September 2022

Fewer visitor restrictions now apply

For visitors to all facilities (effective from and last updated on 16 September 2022)

Some visitor restrictions for all Te Whatu Ora Te Tai o Poutini West Coast health facilities remain in place, but we have relaxed others.

There is still a heightened risk to vulnerable people in hospital and so people must continue to wear a mask when visiting any of our facilities and follow other advice designed to keep patients, staff and other visitors safe.

Kia whakahaumaru te whānau, me ngā iwi katoa – this is 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 in single rooms may have more than one visitor while patients in multi-bed rooms can have one visitor only per patient to ensure there is no overcrowding.
  • People can have one or two support people to accompany them to outpatients appointments.
  • Women in labour in a birthing suite, in Te Nīkau Hospital’s Maternity Ward and in Buller’s Kawatiri Maternity Unit can have the usual support people, subject to space, for the duration of their stay in our facilities.
  • Eating or drinking at the bedside is at the discretion of the Clinical Nurse Manager. Visitors must not eat or drink in multibed rooms because of the increased risk when multiple people remove their 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.

Mask wearing

  • Surgical/medical masks must be worn at all sites, except in counselling, mental health and addiction services where it’s on a case-by-case agreement with patients. Masks will be provided if you don’t have one. In higher-risk environments, people, including young children, may not be able to visit if they cannot wear a mask.
  • Any member of the public with a mask exemption is welcome in all our facilities when attending to receive health care and *treatment. Please show your mask exemption card and appointment letter to staff at the entrance. *Treatment includes coming into the Emergency Department, outpatient appointments, surgery or a procedure.

Visiting patients with COVID-19

  • People are able to 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.

You must NOT visit our facilities if you

  • are COVID-19 positive
  • are unwell. Please stay home if you have a tummy bug or cold or flu/COVID-19-like symptoms (even if you’ve tested negative for COVID-19).

Te Whatu Ora West Coast Aged Residential Care facilities

Visitors are welcome at our Aged Care Residential facilities, subject to the space available. All visitors must wear a surgical mask.

More COVID-19 information

Contact us

Ways to visit or get in touch.

Contact West Coast DHB health services, health centres and medical practices.  Submit feedback, complaints, compliments and much more.  All via this Contact Us portal.

How do I…

Hospital health service appointments at Te Nīkau, Grey Hospital & Health Centre are administered by staff at the Central Booking Unit (CBU).  Find out here how to go about making an enquiry or changing an existing booking with a clinician.

Your patient information

In order to provide high quality care, all of our patients are required to provide us with their name and contact details by completing a patient registration form. The form asks for information such as your name, date of birth, address, and other contact details. This information is stored within our Patient Management System and is what we use should we need to get in touch with you. 

Updating your patient information

If you need to update any of the contact details which you’ve previously provided to us, such as your address, phone number, or current GP, please speak with the receptionist or ward clerk when you are on-site at one of our locations. Please be aware that you may be asked to fill out a West Coast DHB patient registration form.

Access to your information

You have the right to see the information West Coast DHB holds about you and the information contained in your health record.

You may request a copy of your record from the Patient Records Office at Te Nīkau, Grey Hospital & Health Centre in Greymouth. You will need formal identification such as a driver licence or passport.

Read more…

Found

Our friendly staff at Te Nīkau, Grey Hospital & Health Centre’s main reception would be happy to look after items that were lost and found.  

Lost

If you have lost valuables why not first try talking to one of our friendly main reception clerks first.  They might have good news – and if not right-away, maybe a little later.  Just leave your details with them, and if they find out they can get in contact with you straight-away.  

Contacting us

Ways to contact a facility with hospital health services and other West Coast DHB staff or departments can be found below.

Contacting admin staff at the various health facilities

Calling WCDHB hospital, health centres and clinics

To conveniently find key phone numbers for all West Coast DHB health centres/medical centres and hospital in one place, such as Te Nīkau, Grey Hospital & Health Centre’s main reception desk, where our staff can answer general enquiries, point you in the right direction or will be able to quickly transfer your call so you can talk to our staff, please click here.

Location

Physical Address

West Coast District Health Board​
71 Water Walk Road​
Greymouth

Postal Address

West Coast District Health Board​
PO Box 387
Greymouth 7840​

Phone Numbers

Please see guidance provided in the Contacting admin staff at the various health facilities box just above.

 

Compliments, suggestions, general enquiries or suggestions

Use the West Coast DHB’s enquiry and feedback form to share a compliment, make a complaint, make an enquiry, or provide a suggestion. 

We will do our best to help you, clarify any questions you may have, pass on compliments, or look into any complaints.

Important!  Please note however,

  1. If you have an urgent hospital related enquiry, please contact the health facility concerned.
  2. If you are seeking medical advice or treatment please contact your doctor (General Practice) or the person in charge of your care.

Enquiries about patients

Find out how to contact a patient in our Patients and Visitors section. 

General enquiries about DHB health services

Use this enquiry and feedback form to ask us a question, make an enquiry, provide feedback , a compliment or a complaint to Canterbury DHB. 

Please note

  1. If you have an urgent hospital service related enquiry, please contact the facility concerned that offers such services.
  2. If you are seeking medical advice or treatment please contact your doctor (General Practice). DO NOT use this contact form.
  3. Email contact messages are not monitored over weekends, after office hours, and public holidays.

Media enquiries

The West Coast DHB Guide for the media page provides useful information for general media enquiries.

General Manager's office, West Coast

PA to General Manager, West Coast

Louise Mclean​
03-769-7887

General Manager, West Coast

Philip Wheble​
03-769-7477

In an Emergency dial 111

Call 111 and ask for “ambulance” when there is a medical emergency​.

After Hours – call your General Practice team

For health advice after hours call your own doctor (General Practice team). 
To find your doctor easily, simply follow this link and select your medical practice.
Your call will be answered 24/7 by a nurse who can advise you what to do and where to go if you need urgent care.

Please note: The emergency department at Te Nīkau, Grey Hospital & Health Centre  is primarily used for critical and life-threatening situations, such as head injuries, chest pain, breathing trouble, broken bones, and severe bleeding.  However, if you have no other satisfactory options available to you, then the Emergency Department is available look after you.  Please be aware that every patient will be triaged and the wait until seen by a health professional could be very long.  We invite you to watch a very informative video that explains what happens at the Emergency Department.

For information about our Executive Management Team please browse to our dedicated EMT information and contact details page.

Contact and location information for each health facility offering hospital services is located under hospitals and health facilities.

If you wish to contact a specific department or service you can find details under the health centre in which the service is located, or by looking up the department/medical specialty in our health services directory.

To contact West Coast DHB staff, if you don’t know their number, simply phone the Te Nīkau, Grey Hospital & Health Centre’s main reception desk on 03 769-7400, extn 0 .  We have also a directory of further key contacts, here on this page.  Please navigate through some of the sections here, and hopefully you will find the advice you need to contact the department or member of key staff you’re after.

If you need to phone or visit the West Coast DHB corporate office, details are below.

Suppliers of services to the West Coast DHB can email invoices, statements and accounts related enquiries to: accounts@wcdhb.health.nz

You can find out more about purchase orders, payments and procurement on our Information for suppliers page.

To make an official information request go to our requests for official information page.

Website Developer

Please note that this new website (published 19 October 2018) is still under construction and our team are doing their best to continually update information and improve links and functionality.  We are also working on making the site more user-friendly.  With that being said we would love to hear from you, if you have noticed anything you feel could be improved.

We have a short feedback form portion at the bottom of almost every page.  On the page that you feel could be improved, simply fill in the details and submit.  We will then be able to follow up on your feedback and where we agree will follow up on your request as soon as we can.

Alternatively you may wish to submit your feedback via our online enquiry and feedback form.

ISG Team

Our Information Services Group (IT team) contact details are provided on our Information Services Group contact details page.

Page last updated: 4 April 2024

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