Louise Oriti
This week, we’re making another big and positive change around our COVID-19 response.
Last week, we stood down our concierge team. Today, our Fever Clinic will begin to transition away from PCR testing. As part of that transition, the clinic will administer its last PCR test this afternoon. When the clinic opens again on Monday morning, it will offer RAT kits only. We’ll assess how long that will continue for next week, but that too will probably end by the middle of next week. A similar transition is happening at Metro North’s only other Fever Clinic, at TPCH.
We’ve had a Fever Clinic at Redcliffe Hospital since March 2020. It’s been an 828-day marathon for the Fever Clinic team, which tested 400+ people each day at its peak. No one will forget those long lines stretching down Anzac Avenue. Now, with RAT kits so widely available, there’s no longer the same need for fever clinics and PCR testing that there once was.
We held another Special Staff Forum on Thursday afternoon to talk more about the future of the Fever Clinic and how things will work from here. We’re grateful to our Metro North Incident Controller, Louise O’Riordan, for joining that session too.
Looking back, our Fever Clinic has been a tremendous whole-of-hospital effort. Thank you to everyone who had a role in making this important part of our COVID-19 response possible. It’s a long list of people to thank, from our Emergency Department nurses through to our administrative, operational and security team members. Our allied health clinicians put their hands up to help too, and our Infection Prevention and Infectious Diseases teams made sure it was all as clinically safe as possible. Our Facility Services, infrastructure, and BEMS teams did the heavy lifting to get our first Fever Clinic established outside the Emergency Department and then literally built another from the ground up near MBICC. All of those teams, and more, helped make our Fever Clinic an important community service during our COVID-19 response.
As part of this transition, the remaining members of our Fever Clinic team will soon be redeployed and return to their substantive roles, much like our concierge team did this week. How the hospital will use the Fever Clinic building is still being decided too, with several proposals already under consideration.
Winter, flu and COVID
The latest modelling suggests that we’re still several weeks away from the peak of the winter flu season. This week in our IMT meetings, we heard that one area under particular pressure already is paediatrics, where patients with respiratory illnesses are more unwell than usual and requiring longer than usual lengths of stay. The Emergency Department remains under significant pressure most days too.
The good news is that this week we’ve made an arrangement with Peninsula Private Hospital, which will provide us with ten additional beds each day. This should reduce some of that pressure and allow us to move patients out of the Emergency Department into ward beds sooner.
Thank you to everyone who has been playing their part so far this winter by getting vaccinated against the flu, registering their COVID-19 booster, and remembering to wear their masks and eye protection.
Length of Service Awards
On Monday, we were joined by the Metro North Board Chair, Jim McGowan, for our Length of Service Awards. More than 200 staff were recognised this year, including six awards for 40 years of service. Among those recognised were: Tamara Benedict, Diane Smout, Cheryl O’Brien, Cathy Fritz, Carolyn Brand, and Angela Warland.
Congratulations once again to everyone recognised on Monday. The complete list of award recipients is now available on QHEPS.
Car park courtesy
Now that we’ve stepped down to Tier 2 of our COVID response plan, we can expect more patients and visitors in our hospital’s main public car park.
There are plenty of spaces available each day in the multi-storey car park, and during these busy winter months, we’re asking hospital staff to please leave the car parking areas closest to the hospital for our patients and visitors. If you’re one of the 80 or so staff parking in the main public car park each day, please try the multi-storey car park instead. It will make things a lot easier for our patients and visitors.
Lastly, this week, we’ll be holding another face-to-face orientation session on Monday. This session is even more special because we’ll be welcoming 16 new nurses to our hospital. They’ll be introduced to our #IamRedcliffe Agreed Behaviours and our Metro North values as part of their orientation. If you are working with new team members, please help them to feel welcome and go out of your way to help others. #IamRedcliffe.
Louise Oriti
Executive Director
Redcliffe Hospital