Nelson and Wairau Hospital Appointments continue during wet weather
Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand, Nelson Marlborough is preparing for the potential impact of heavy rainfall and associated hazards on hospital appointments and services. Widespread surface flooding is expected over the coming days, which may impact the ability for people to attend appointments safely.
Pat Davidsen, General Manager Clinical Services said, “At this stage, all appointments at the hospitals will continue where it is safe for people to attend. Our Administration staff have been busy contacting people with confirmed appointments to create a plan to mitigate potential risks. This includes utilising telehealth services where possible and understanding travel plans and requirements.”
“It highlights again just how important our Administration staff are to ensuring we can provide great care to our community. This team, with very short notice, have had to orientate to new plans and workflow – we are forever grateful for their professionalism.”
Hilary Exton, Director Allied Health and Incident Controller for Te Whatu Ora, Nelson Marlborough said, “Our community teams have been able to reschedule non-essential appointments while we monitor the impacts of the weather event, however we have community teams such as District Nursing and Palliative Care who will need to continue to provide essential services.”
“Where essential care is needed the team are reviewing any potential impacts of surface flooding and road closures to generate pre-travel plans before travel.”
Te Whatu Ora is part of the Nelson Tasman Emergency Management, Incident Management Team, which connects a range of services to enable a collective emergency response.
“The collaboration enables us to monitor and respond quickly to the needs across our district as we can draw on the expertise and guidance of our inter-agency colleagues,” Hilary said.
“It also enables relevant health groups from across the hospitals, public health, Māori health services, community health services, primary health organisations, mental health and additions and aged residential care to feed into the response.”
Links and information
- Play it safe – we don’t want to see you in the emergency department! Hydrologists are reporting floods and landslips are likely in our region over the coming days. Take care and apply common sense, if roads are flooded don’t cross. Check out these great resources on what to do during slips, floods and storms.
Keep up-to-date
MetService Severe Weather Information
Waka Kotahi (NZTA) road information