Dunedin Hospital returned to normal yesterday, with services running smoothly after week-long restrictions imposed to fight a norovirus outbreak were lifted.
Otago District Health Board operations manager Megan Boivin said patients were being asked whether they had been in contact with anybody who had suffered norovirus symptoms. Those that had been were asked not to come to their hospital appointments.
"We are screening all patients coming in for the rest of this week and are ringing everybody, so that is quite time consuming."
Plans had yet to be developed on how to tackle waiting lists, she said.
More than 2300 appointments including outpatient visits, elective surgery procedures and planned admissions were postponed because of the outbreak.
No new cases of norovirus were reported yesterday.
More than 170 staff and patients fell ill with norovirus in the past three weeks.
Visiting hours from 2pm to 8pm are being strictly enforced.
