Canberra Hospital | Health

Latest news – Thursday 9 April 2020

Visitor restrictions

To help slow the spread of COVID-19 and to keep patients and staff safe, we will be limiting the number of visitors to all sites.
General visiting is limited to:

• one visitor per patient allowed on site per day.

Visitors must not enter if they:

• are unwell with a fever, cough, sore throat or shortness of breath,
• have been overseas or on a cruise ship in the last 14 days, or
• have been in close contact with a confirmed COVID-19 case in the last 14 days.

We also encourage visitors to contact their loved ones by calling them directly, wherever possible do not bring children with you and please visit a hand hygiene station upon entering.

Visitors will now be screened before they can access our premises and will not be permitted entry if they answer yes to any of the following questions:

• Do you currently have a fever, sore throat or runny nose?
• Have you returned from overseas or a cruise ship in the last 14 days?
• Have you been in close contact in the last 14 days with anyone who has confirmed COVID-19?

Patients are asked to limit their number of visitors to one person on site per day. Patients attending an outpatient clinic have been asked not to bring anyone unless absolutely necessary. If patients do need to bring someone, they are asked to limit this to one person. 

Visitors are asked not to bring children to Canberra Hospital where possible.

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Latest news – Wedesday 25 March 2020

Canberra Health Services (CHS) are reducing non-urgent and non-essential outpatient and community activity to help contain the spread of COVID-19 and decrease demand on our health system. This will ensure our services are well resourced and staffed to respond to the pandemic.

• elective surgeries
• community based services
• medical outpatients, procedures and treatments.

CHS are contacting patients whose appointments or treatments are affected. No patient will lose their spot on the wait list as a result of these actions.

If you have not been contacted, please attend as planned. If you wish to cancel your appointment, please call Central Health Intake (5124 9977) or use the on-line cancellation form at https://bit.ly/3abpSSl.

If attending a CHS location, please come alone unless you need someone to help you. Do not come:

• if you have been overseas in the last 14 days or you have been in close contact with someone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19
• if you have symptoms including fever, cough, cold, flu or diarrhoea.

Elective Surgeries

All patients on the elective surgery waitlist are being clinically reviewed to ensure the most urgent surgery is prioritised.

Patients whose elective surgery has been confirmed and booked will be contacted individually and advised. These patients will remain on the elective surgery waitlist.

These are very difficult decisions to make and we know there are many Canberrans who will be impacted.

This is an overwhelming time for people, particularly those with health concerns. We thank the community for their understanding and patience during this challenging period.