11 May 2020 – COVID-19 (coronavirus)

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you all enjoyed some time with your mothers, families and loved ones over the weekend to celebrate Mother’s Day. We’ve seen another great week across both Metro North and Queensland. The number of our COVID-19 patients are low – single digits in both our inpatient and virtual wards.

Here’s the week in review:

Preparedness initiatives last week:

• Ongoing work with Metro South HHS and West Moreton HHS to consider requirements at a Tier 5 response level.

·         PPE monitoring with additional surgical and procedural activity.

·         Updated Metro North HHS COVID Response Plan to include Tier 0 and Tier 4 and 5.

Our activity for the past week

• As at 10am Sunday 10 May, we have had 328 people confirmed with COVID-19 in Metro North, of whom 314 have recovered.
• Assessment and testing through fever clinics bring the total to 16,663 presentations in the Metro North region.

·         Vidcast session for staff (now weekly).

·         Expanded resources for staff on the COVID-19 extranet.

Looking after our people

We are continuing to implement the wellbeing strategy. The staff wellbeing portal can be accessed from non-Queensland Health computers (email yourself the link) and has a range of resources. There are tips and tools for taking care of your emotional, physical, social and financial wellbeing as we adapt to our new normal lifestyles.

Preparedness initiatives in the coming week

• Continued monitoring of recommenced services across Metro North.
• Continued evaluation of pandemic response activities and identification of strategies to embed new practices.

Maximising our resources 

As we resume clinical activity, we continue to monitor stocks and available supplies of personal protective equipment. We are prepared to flex up and down as needed while we balance patient care with staff safety.

The Drummond family MasterChef challenge second round occurred on the weekend with the dessert round. I’m pleased to report that while Ned’s vanilla slice with pistachio honeycomb, toffee sauce and toffee macadamias won the votes for best looking dessert, we tied when I took out the flavour votes with my baked Alaska with chocolate brownie base, and vanilla bean, cookies and cream, and salted caramel homemade ice creams. As you can see by the photo, Ned saying she would do something simple to give me a chance was a complete fib. Ned had the benefit of when I moved my baked Alaska from the cooking tray to the serving dish it suffered an avalanche!

Regards,

Shaun