Dear colleagues,
This week Metro North has stood up a new community COVID-19 vaccination hub at Pinkenba. We are also holding pop up vaccination clinics at Suncorp Stadium today and Saturday for the NRL matches. Thank you to our EOC and COH vaccination teams for all your work this week to stand up these clinics in partnership with the Queensland Vaccination Operations Centre. Thank you also to all the staff who helped set up and run our clinics over the Super Pfizer Walk in Weekend.
Metro North’s five community vaccination clinics are now available for walk ins for anyone aged 12 and above. During school holidays it’s a great opportunity to take the whole family along to one of our sites:
- Pinkenba Cruise Terminal, Monday-Friday 8.30am-3.30pm
- Brisbane Entertainment Centre Boondall, Open seven days 8.30am-6pm
- Kippa Ring, Open seven days 8.30-3.50pm
- Doomben Racecourse, Open seven days 8.30am-3.50pm
- Caboolture Square Shopping Centre, Monday-Friday 8am-5pm, Saturday 8am-4pm
So far just under half of Metro North’s staff have already uploaded evidence of your COVID vaccination. The deadline for providing evidence of at least your first dose is next Thursday, 30 September. If you haven’t yet uploaded your evidence, there are kiosks at facilities to support staff to step through the process. If you don’t have computer access, please talk to your line manager about how to provide your evidence of vaccination.
I’ll be holding another vidcast on Monday morning to answer questions about the mandatory vaccination directive. In the meantime, the recordings of previous vidcasts including the clinical information from Dr Krispin Hajkowicz and Dr Andrew Redmond, are available on QHEPS. We also have a staff vaccination page on the COVID extranet which includes FAQs gathered in the vidcasts and information about vaccination and pregnancy.
Have your Say survey
Over the next few weeks I will be visiting our facilities to talk about our Have your Say staff survey results. At a Metro North level there were 10,670 respondents, compared to 8600 in 2019. Of those, 62% said Metro North is a truly great place to work while 38% disagree. The majority of staff felt that Metro North is free from sexual harassment (87%), gender-based discrimination (77%), and harassment and bullying from their supervisor (77%) and co-workers (70%). Mark Butterworth and I talked about the results in detail in our vidcast last week.
All managers should have received their survey reports which will vary in detail depending on how many people participated. Any unit manager where at least 10 staff completed the survey will receive high level results as well as a written report with feedback that can be used to develop an action plan.
As part of the survey I received nearly 4000 messages in a bottle. Through my messages I’ll be addressing some of the issues raised through the survey. One message received was around the use of staff disabled toilets. Unfortunately, some staff are using disabled toilets as a changing room and spending a long time getting ready. These toilets should be kept free for staff who genuinely need them. There are various changing rooms around our facilities that can be used by staff.
Care4Qld Strategy
Care4Qld is a Queensland government strategy to support the unprecedented demand experienced across the public hospital system. Queensland Health is providing funding to improve patient flow and ensure patients get the right treatment at the right place and right time. If you have a good idea about improving patient flow and patient experiences, please share it, try it and do it.
Improving patient flow and patient experiences was the focus of our recent Link and Seed grant round. Application shortlisting has been completed and I’ll keep you informed as the applicants progress through to the next stages.
Regards,
Jackie