14 May 2020

Dear Colleagues,

It’s now my second week in the Executive Director Operations role. I am learning a lot, meeting many new people and being consistently inspired by the commitment and resilience of my Metro North colleagues.

This week I enjoyed being part of Shaun’s weekly vidcast where we also farewelled Dr Robert Stable and thanked him for his contribution to the health service during his time as the Chair of the Metro North Board. Another exciting opportunity this week was a tour of the Herston Biofabrication Institute located in Block 7. It was great to see such a futuristic, modern space that will be the home of some really cutting-edge innovations.

We continue to see an extensive decrease in positive COVID-19 patients, allowing Metro North to continue to transition back to activity as usual. Across our health service, our rebalancing of the healthcare system continues. All operating theatres are transitioning to full capacity over the coming weeks to support our category 1, 2 and long-wait patients which is good for our patients and the broader community.

We should all be excited that Metro North is just 20 plus weeks away from taking responsibility of the Surgical, Treatment and Rehabilitation Service (STARS) facility later this year.  The construction and fit out of STARS is nearing completion and looking state-of-the-art. The STARS Project Team is currently undertaking a significant exercise to inspect and validate the building and participate in the associated commissioning testing to ensure facility readiness before the transition to STARS commences.

There are over 19,000 staff across Metro North who all, no matter their discipline, contribute to the patient journey. I’d like to thank and acknowledge all of our staff for their cohesive efforts and commitment and this week, on International Day of the Nurse, we celebrated and acknowledged the fabulous work our nurses do.

The cooler mornings we’re having are a timely reminder that flu season is fast approaching. Please get your flu vaccinations – I’ve had mine! This will keep you, your family, your colleagues and our patients safe during the 2020 influenza season.

Have a great week, look after yourself, your families and your colleagues!

Regards,

Tami