SCDHB

New Phone Number for South Canterbury DHB/Timaru Hospital

South Canterbury DHB services based at Timaru Hospital and Woollcombe House will have a new phone number from mid-day this Sunday, October 17 -  03 687 2100. The old number will continue to connect for a year while the transition is made.

The phone number is changing as part of an upgrade of the district health board's PABX phone system.  The old phone system limited the number of phone extensions available to the DHB, so new staff joining the organisation could only have an external phone line, not an extension, until another staff member left.  Over the past few years this has made it difficult for departments to work together and for new clinical staff to have a phone extension necessary for their work.

"Although changing  the main hospital number will be inconvenient at first, in the long-term the new PABX system will make it easier for patients to get in touch with us, and will make day-to-day work much easier for staff," says Chief Executive Chris Fleming.

For the next year, two old phone numbers will be automatically re-directed to the new hospital number:

03 684 3089 – This was the phone number used by Timaru Hospital until 1998. Some people still call the hospital on this number, despite it not being advertised for the past 13 years.

03 684 4000 – This was the hospital and district health board phone number between 1998 and today.

Direct dial phone numbers, used to contact various departments and wards directly, will also change this Sunday. All calls to the old direct dial numbers will be re-directed to the new number for the next year.

Staff who use direct dial numbers will get in touch with their patients and other contacts over the coming months to update their phone number.  A list of commonly used direct dial numbers is available and will be published in the new Timaru-Oamaru phone book which comes out next month.

There will not be any change to the Talbot Park phone number, or to the 0800 psychiatric crisis (TACT team) number.

In an emergency, people still need to dial 111.

For more information contact:

Arlene Goss

Communications Advisor

Ph 03 684 1395

027 276 4259