Ronald McDonald House Charities® (RMHC®) New Zealand is an essential service. This means our core purpose, to enable family-centred care by keeping families together when their child is in a New Zealand hospital away from home, will be fulfilled throughout all national alert levels.
Many of the families staying at Ronald McDonald House® have children with compromised immunity due to their medical conditions and treatment. These children are at high risk from – COVID-19.
To ensure the safety of patients, families, staff and essential volunteers, RMHC® New Zealand has re-introduced a series of actions that will ensure we can safely continue to provide accommodation and care for families with a child undergoing medical treatment.
These following actions, effective as at 31 August 2020, have been guided by the Ministry of Health and in collaboration with partnering District Health Boards and include:
- Families checking in will be accommodated at either Auckland Domain, Grafton Mews or Wellington House. From Monday 12th of October visitors will be capped at 3 visitors per family.
- While physical distancing and increased hygiene protocols remain in place throughout all RMHC New Zealand facilities, our programmes will operate at reduced capacity to ensure the safety of our families, staff and volunteers.
- Should the demand for accommodation exceed capacity, we will continue to support families in offsite, self-contained accommodation close to the hospital. The cost of this accommodation will be covered by RMHC New Zealand.
- The Ronald McDonald Family Room programme day lounge at the Wellington Hospital and the National Children’s Hospital in Auckland are open, with restrictions to capacity to ensure physical distancing can safely occur.
- Due to physical distancing requirements and Government guidelines around food provision dinner groups in Auckland are suspended until February 2021, with regular reviews of timelines.
A continued increase in the demand for off-site accommodation, as well as food provisioning requirements, will once again result in additional costs to RMHC New Zealand due to the significant changes to our operating model.
Screening of all families, staff, and volunteers prior to entering our Houses
All families, volunteers, and staff will be screened prior to entering a facility to minimise the chance of inadvertently spreading the virus.
Supporting the families
At an already stressful time for families, the risk from COVID-19 adds a new anxiety. They need our support more than ever. If you are able to help support families you can:
Our team would be grateful for donations of non-perishable food items (although, please leave these outside the front door) but we are unable to receive second-hand clothes or toys right now.
We will keep posting updates here as the situation changes.
RMHC New Zealand COVID-19: Media Alerts
Helpful Links: