On Thursday, Waitaki District Health Services chief executive Phil Jamieson apologised to the Stanger family for any distress caused by the hospital’s visiting hours and said the hospital’s guidelines for dealing with sensitive situations would be reviewed.
Bill Stanger made a verbal complaint to the hospital after being turned away when attempting to visit his father Selwyn outside visiting hours last week.
Selwyn, who turns 100 next week, was recovering from a heart attack and had poor hearing and vision. His wife died two months ago, and Bill said his father needed support.
He was entitled to it, too, he said.
The Health and Disability Commissioner’s (HDC) code of health and disability services states patients have the right to one or more support people of choice present, except where safety is compromised.
"[Oamaru Hospital] need to take more notice of the code," Bill said.
The hospital’s visiting hours are between 2pm and 3pm, and 6pm and 7pm. Before Covid-19 visiting hours were from 2pm to 8pm.
During Selwyn’s one-week hospital stay, Bill had been turned away when he attempted to visit his father 10 minutes early.
When one of his five siblings travelled to Oamaru from Christchurch to visit, they too, were denied access for being early.
In one instance, Bill’s wife who had been at the hospital during visiting hours, went home to retrieve Selwyn’s walker and was unable to re-enter upon returning at 4.30pm.
He felt this was uncaring and unnecessarily strict, and was further frustrated by inconsistent reasoning as to why access was denied.
Dunedin and Timaru hospitals were not as strict, with visiting hours from 2pm to 8pm, he said.
Mr Jamieson confirmed the hospital had received complaints after visiting hours were reduced as a Covid-19 precaution.
"We remain vigilant to the current times, living in the Covid-19 world and continual presence of other infectious diseases. We need to continually protect our staff, visitors and vulnerable patients from these diseases entering our hospital."
The hospital also increased its security after some serious incidents over the past year, and it was important for nursing and other clinical staff to be able to care for patients without continual interruption, he said.
"We also need to consider the healing for all patients, especially those undergoing rehab."
The hospital would make exceptions for families who made prior arrangements to visit patients for genuine reasons, such as those in palliative or end-of-life care.
After meeting the Stanger family, Mr Jamieson said he did not believe the hospital breached the HDC code, but as with any complaint, it would review its approach and processes.
