Oamaru Hospital has extended its visiting hours, following complaints about its "strict" policy.
Last week, Bill Stanger told the Otago Daily Times he was turned away from the hospital when he attempted to visit his father Selwyn, who was recovering from a heart attack, outside the 2pm to 4pm and 6pm to 7pm visiting hours.
In one case, he was denied access when he showed up 10 minutes early; in another, 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.
Bill complained to the hospital last week, believing the visiting hours were uncaring and unnecessarily strict.
Last week, 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 guidelines for dealing with sensitive situations would be reviewed.
Yesterday, Mr Jamieson confirmed visiting hours would be extended from today.
"Following various requests for us to review our visiting hours, it has been decided ... our visiting hours to ward will be 2pm to 7pm," he said.
"We will monitor the effectiveness of these visiting hours and review them again as necessary, with an option to potentially change at short notice if required."
Oamaru Hospital’s visiting hours were reduced to 2pm to 4pm and 6pm to 7pm last year as a Covid-19 precaution.
Before Covid-19, visiting hours were noon to 8pm.
Mr Jamieson said the hospital welcomed feedback from the community. There was also a confidential patient and whanau feedback survey available online to help "continually improve the health service available to the community".
