Dear colleagues

I’m back after a few days out of the Metro North Emergency Operations Centre and oh, how things change quickly during this pandemic. As we progress through the week, it is quickly becoming clear that there is no such thing as settling into ‘a routine’.  Key words remain – flexible, agile, fluid…. – prepared!!.

We are reviewing our Covid Response plan, given that our contain and sustain activities have been so effective to date. We will soon begin graded re-introduction health service activities so we can continue to provide important procedures and services for our patients as well as maintaining our preparedness posture in the event that case numbers increase. Other activities will include evaluation of our response to date and development of recovery strategies to guide our activities for the remainder of 2020.

I encourage you to keep a watchful eye on the messages released by Shaun (our CE), Jackie (our COO), Alanna and I so you can keep up to date with the latest information as it becomes available.

Today I want to discuss:

• Update to the correct use of PPE video
• Closure of Caboolture and Brighton Campus Fever Clinics
• Monitoring COVID-19 moving forward

Update – correct use of PPE video

We all know that properly donning and doffing PPE is crucial to maintain the health and welling of our staff. Recent feedback flagged that the video showing staff how to correctly use PPE did not address how to properly clean reusable eyewear such as reading glasses. This video has been updated to include this information. I encourage you to share this video around your work areas which can be found on the front page of the COVID-19 extranet.

Closure of Caboolture and Brighton Campus Fever Clinics

As Jackie raised yesterday, we are scaling back our COVID-19 response services where they are no longer needed. The Caboolture Hospital and Brighton Health Campus fever clinics closed this week. Signs have been organised to be placed around the closed clinic entrances to redirect attendees to the nearest available facility that can support their needs.

My thanks go to the staff who filled these clinics and carried out vital testing to keep our community safe. Our capability was tested and proven!  – and will be able to be re-implemented if required.

Monitoring COVID-19 moving forward

To date, most COVID-19 cases in Queensland have come from patients who have recently travelled overseas or been in direct contact with someone who recently travelled overseas. As our borders have been closed for a number of weeks, we are now seeing a decline of cases developed overseas and a strong focus on the small number community acquired cases.

There are currently no community acquired cases under investigation within the Metro North HHS catchment and we will be alerted the moment any are identified within our area.

For now, the best thing we can do to ensure the safety of ourselves, our patients and colleagues by diligently washing our hands regularly and effectively implementing social distancing in all our endeavours.

During my time out of the EOC, I saw some amusing things on the Internet. This (modified) graph gave me a giggle.

It’s little moments like these that I find help me take a quick step back during some of the busier times at work – rest, reflect and smile. I think it’s important that we all do this when we can to ensure we can stay positive, motivated and most importantly, keep our collective sense of humour!

Doing this will help us rise to any occasion and ensure we are continuing to deliver exceptional health services with world class professionalism and care. I genuinely believe this is the reputation we as a HHS have developed and I am sure this reputation will only grow as we continue to rise to the challenges we face as a result of COVID-19.

Until tomorrow

Kindest regards,

Adjunct Professor Alanna Geary

Metro North Health Incident Controller

Metro North HHS – Overview of Cases*

*With effect 1000 23 April 2020
**Metro North has three recorded deaths (one person a return traveller into NSW, who passed away in NSW)
*** These numbers reflect the cases being managed by Metro North