Message from the Metro North Health Incident Controller – COVID-19 update 388 | 10/04/2022
Dear colleagues,
- COVID-19 beds
- Step down change
- Vidcast tomorrow
Today, there were 7,154 new COVID cases reported in Queensland.
My sincere thanks to all of our great Metro North Health staff caring for patients across our health service and making a difference to our community’s health every day.
COVID-19 beds
Our Metro North IMT met this morning to review our COVID bed situation ahead of what we expect will be another busy week.
Demand for COVID beds continues to be strong, with limited available capacity today for COVID beds at most of our hospitals and facilities. There remains good capacity available in services like our Virtual Ward, Hospital In The Home, and Post-Acute Care.
Arrangements are being put in place today to support additional COVID-19 beds at the RBWH for tomorrow morning. STARS are also opening additional non-COVID beds tomorrow morning to assist with general inpatient bed capacity across Metro North Health.
Step down change
On Friday, on the advice of our infectious diseases experts, we made a change that will further assist in managing COVID bed demand. COVID inpatients across Metro North Heath who have completed a seven-day period of isolation, are free of COVID-19 symptoms, are not severely immunosuppressed, and have been reviewed individually by their treating clinician can now be ‘stepped down’ from COVID beds.
Vidcast tomorrow
Join us tomorrow at 1:30pm for a vidcast with Metro North Health Incident Controller Louise O’Riordan and Acting Chief Operating Officer Jane Hancock.
You can watch the live stream here.
If you’re not able to join, a reminder that recordings of our COVID vidcasts and Executive vidcasts are available on QHEPS.
I would like to acknowledge the great work being done this weekend across our Mental Health and Emergency Department teams, working together in partnership under significant demand pressures.
I would also like to give a big shout-out to our colleagues at Metro South, who have been of great assistance this weekend in sharing the clinical load across the greater Brisbane area.
Thank you to everyone for their teamwork, excellent cooperation, and the ‘can-do approach’ we’ve seen among facilities and teams this weekend. We really appreciate everyone’s efforts.
Kind regards,
Michele Gardner
Metro North Health Incident Controller
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Current Metro North Health tier activated – Tier 3
Helpful links
- Register your positive RAT result
- Upload evidence of your vaccine or booster
- Vaccination locations
- Qld Health general COVID-19 page
- Metro North COVID-19 extranet
- COVID vidcast recordings on QHEPS
Metro North HHS – overview of cases*
| Patients managed by HHS | Fever clinics | ||||||
| Total in-patients | Virtual ward/ HITH/ similar | Deaths** | No. of clinics | Presentations | |||
| Total | ICU patients | Yesterday | |||||
| ICU not ventilated | ICU ventilated | ||||||
| 101 | 4 | 0 | 648 | 55 | 3 | 142 | |
Norfolk Island – overview of cases***
| Patients managed by HHS | Close Contacts in quarantine | ||||||
| Total in-patients | Virtual ward/ HITH/ similar | Total cases including recovered | Deaths | ||||
| Total | ICU patients | ||||||
| ICU not ventilated | ICU ventilated | ||||||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 175 | 0 | 8 | |
*As at the above date
**Metro North Health has recorded deaths (one person a return traveller into NSW, who passed away in NSW)
*** As part of an Intergovernmental Agreement, from 1 January 2022 Metro North Health is providing a number of health support services to Norfolk Island. This includes advice and support to staff on island in terms of managing COVID patients. The numbers in this section of the table refer to COVID patients who remain on Norfolk Island and are receiving direct care by staff on Norfolk Island.