Hospital visiting guidelines updated 20 July 2022: Hospital visitors must wear a surgical/medical paper mask. Fabric face coverings are no longer acceptable. See our COVID-19 pages for detailed information about hospital visiting guidelines, COVID-19 tests and care in the community advice. See www.vaccinatecanterburywestcoast.nz for information about vaccinations.
We are at ORANGE according to the NZ COVID-19 Protection Framework
Last updated:
9th April 2022
With the recent resurgence in cases in Canterbury, largely due to the Omicron BA.5 subvariant we are seeing an increase in demand right across the health system. Presentations to our Christchurch ED and Ashburton’s AAU are higher than ever and admission rates are high, which means we have a shortage of resourced beds.
Recently, we have seen too many unwell people coming to visit someone in hospital and too many that cannot or will not wear a medical mask. This increases the risk to vulnerable people in hospital. For these reasons we need to everything we can to minimise these risks.
We have therefore tightened visitor restrictions for all Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury hospitals and health facilities.
Kia whakahaumaru te whānau, me ngā iwi katoa – this is to keep everybody safe:
By sticking to the rules above, you help keep our patients, staff, other visitors and yourself safe. We 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.
Exceptions to the ‘one visitor’ policy
Visiting patients with COVID-19
You must NOT visit the hospital if you
Exceptions for people with disabilities
An exception will be made for people with disabilities who are in hospital or have to attend an outpatient appointment – where they need a support person to access health services. For example, a sign language interpreter, support person for someone with a learning disability, or someone to assist with mobility. The support person is in addition to the one permitted visitor.
Everyone visiting our facilities must wear a mask, no exceptions
While we appreciate that some people have legitimate reasons for being exempt from wearing a mask and may even have an official card to confirm this, people who cannot or will not wear a mask cannot visit someone in hospital or attend hospital, other than to access healthcare. This is another measure to minimise the risk to vulnerable patients.
Patients and visitors should also read the additional more detailed visiting guidelines for each specific hospital.
More COVID-19 information
Post-operative monitoring in differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC).
Endo/Steroid Lab
TG
Tg
4 days
6580
2
1
Pre-Testing Requirements:
Take samples pre or >2 wks post any fine needle aspiration.
Patients who are undergoing biotin therapy and/or ingesting biotin supplements with levels of >100ng/mL will show a falsely low Thyroglobulin result in the Beckman Thyroglobulin assay.
0.5
Ambient (8 - 24 degrees Celsius)
If overnight - Frozen
Serum thyroglobulin should be undetectable (<0.1 µg/L) in a patient who has had a total thyroidectomy and has a TSH <0.1 mIU/L.
Anti-thyroglobulin antibodies (TgAb), even at low titre, may interfere with thyroglobulin measurement to cause falsely low or undetectable Tg levels.
There is evidence in patients with DTC that an increase in serum TgAb on serial sampling is a risk factor for disease recurrence.
<0.1 – 58 µg/L in serum
Beckman Coulter Access
$35.37 (Exclusive of GST)
6580
1. Test includes a screen for potentially interfering Tg autoantibodies (TgAb).
2. Serum is the recommended specimen, although serum or lithium heparin plasma may be used for Tg measurement, lithium heparin is not suitable for TgAb test.