15 April 2020

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you all had some down time with your immediate families over the Easter break. If you were at work, thank you for holding down the fort.  As we settle into our new normal for a while, I have been extremely inspired by everyone’s willingness to adapt, knuckle down and do what we do best – care for our patients. We need to look out for each other too, especially during these times. Please check in with your colleagues and ask if they’re ok.

Clarification of Testing Criteria

There has been confusion surrounding the moving beast that is the criteria for COVID-19 testing. Our clinics across Metro North are for people who have:

• been overseas in the past 14 days OR
• been in contact with someone with a confirmed or probable case of COVID-19 OR
• have disembarked from a cruise ship in the last 14 days OR
• are a healthcare worker, aged care or residential aged care worker OR
• live in Brisbane, Cairns or the Gold Coast OR
• live in an area where an outbreak as occurred OR
• live in a First Nations community.

AND

• have a fever (or history of fever) OR acute respiratory infection including sore throat, cough, shortness of breath, with or without fever)

Update on staff flu vaccinations

Our influenza vaccination program is going well. Since the launch of our flu vaccination campaign approximately 4000 staff have received their vaccination. While the flu vaccine doesn’t prevent COVID-19, it’s still important to be immunised against influenza to protect yourself and your family.

Caboolture Mental Health Short Stay

Our Caboolture mental health short stay unit has opened this week with a staged approach. Thank you to our Mental Health, Assets and Infrastructure, and Caboolture Hospital teams for working together to deliver this much needed service in a short timeframe.

Community donations

Our community is very keen to help our COVID-19 response in any way possible. We saw over Easter a huge amount of chocolate donated for patients and staff which is a lovely gesture, particularly for those people unable to spend the long weekend with family.

If you’ve got knitters or crocheters in your network who are looking for a way to assist, I’m sure our aged care residents who don’t have any visitors at the moment would appreciate a care package of beanies, scarves or mittens as we head into the cooler weather.

Vidcasts

Please continue tuning in to our Vidcasts each week day. You can tune in live or catch up online to keep informed on the latest up to date COVID-19 information. View the upcoming schedule on the Metro North intranet.

Take care of yourselves and remember to visit our new Staff Wellbeing page – you may find something you didn’t even know you needed!

Regards,

Jackie