21 May 2021

Dear colleagues, 

It’s been a very busy couple of weeks.  

Our staff have been busy over the last few weeks screening incoming travellers from Perth, Melbourne and Sydney. I’d like to thank all the staff who volunteered their time to provide us with extra capacity at the airports, ports and railway stations. This work replaces previously seen border closures at this time as per the Interstate Exposure Venues Direction (No. 2) 

Our COVID vaccination clinics have also been working hard to stand up their Pfizer clinics, which I’m excited to announce are now at STARS, RBWH, TPCH, Redcliffe Hospital and Caboolture Hospital. We will also soon have mobile Pfizer community clinics. After a slowdown in vaccination numbers, it’s pleasing to see that our vaccination clinics have been going wild this week. Yesterday Metro North delivered 827 COVID-19 vaccines, and today we should hit over 1000 vaccines. It’s my target to get to 1500 vaccines daily next week, and I’ll be watching keenly to see which day we hit this target.  

Please remember that all staff and your household contacts are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine at any Metro North vaccination clinic, and you can book an appointment online through our COVID-19 vaccination webpage.  

Designated COVID-19 hospitals 

On Tuesday this week, the Designated COVID-19 Hospital Network Direction came into effect. This direction establishes a COVID-19 network made of up six hospitals: Cairns Hospital, Gold Coast University Hospital, Queensland Children’s Hospital, Sunshine Coast University Hospital, The Prince Charles Hospital and the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. This means that all positive COVID-19 patients and quarantined international arrivals will be transferred to a designated COVID-19 hospital and cared for in a COVID-19 ward when requiring hospital level treatment.  

The network approach will consolidate the current hospital-based COVID-19 care model and ensure a consistent high standard of care across the spectrum of acuity of COVID patients. Additionally, the network approach will protect ongoing service delivery and capacity across the state. Importantly, this model aims to provide improved protection of staff involved in the care of COVID-19 cases and reduce potential transmission risk in the hospital environment and to the wider community.  

PPE fit testing 

Thank you to the staff who have been successfully fit tested for a P2/N95 mask so far. As a reminder for staff who are yet to complete their testing, the schedule is available online. We have commenced re-testing of staff who were unable to find a successful fit on their first round of testing. I look forward to working with these staff to find an effective mask solution for them. 

I would also like to thank our teams in fever clinics – the ‘cold’ weather saw a slight surge in attendances and you expertly supported this surge without fuss. All of this has happened when we are seeing record activity at all levels in our hospitals. 

One other change to look out for this week includes the transition to QLD Check In QR codes at all our hospitals and COVID wards.  

I will be on leave next week, as I’m heading down to Canberra to enjoy the cold weather. Alanna Geary will be acting Incident Controller while I’m away.  

Kind regards, 

Dr Liz Rushbrook 
Metro North Incident Controller 

Metro North HHS – overview of cases*

* As at 21/05/2021 1000
** Metro North has four recorded deaths (one person a return traveller into NSW, who passed away in NSW)
*** These numbers reflect the cases being managed by Metro North.