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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