Waipuna Hospice moves to Alert Level One

We are both relieved and delighted that the country has moved to Alert Level One and that we can return to offering a full range of services for patients and their family/whānau.

As the global pandemic continues and should the situation across our country change we want to reassure you that we are equipped to change levels quickly and efficiently if that is needed to ensure safety of our patients, family/whanau, staff and the wider community.

At Alert Level One You Can Expect:

• Our Day Programme and Toolbox sessions to operate as normal
• Face to face and onsite support activities such as counselling and bereavement support groups to be available.
• The opportunity for online/telemedicine consultations to continue. Please let a member of our team know if you prefer this option.
• Our Inpatient Unit to be open and, as before Covid-19, we will be discouraging anyone experiencing symptoms of cold, flu, or anything contagious from visiting.
• Our team to continue checking with visitors and/or patients to identify if they have been exposed to anyone known to have Covid-19, visited a high-risk area, or to be experiencing symptoms. If they have, our team will be required to wear Personal Protective Equipment. If this is not required, you can still ask members of our team to wear a mask.
• Our staff to continue implementing strict infection control guidelines.
• Patients to be asked to continue recording the people they have contact with so contact tracing can be initiated immediately by the Ministry of Health if a risk is identified. We have developed a Visitor Tracing and Contact Details Form. to make this easier. All members of our staff are also recording their contacts (work related and personal) for the same reason. This reduces the risk of further spread of the virus. Our Covid-19 Tracing App QR codes will remain displayed and we encourage you to either use those, or sign in using the paper forms.

We recognise that Covid-19 has created unique challenges for patients and their family/whānau and we would like to encourage you to access the services of our Family Support Team who offer social work, counselling, chaplaincy and cultural support.