30 December 2021
Dear colleagues,
In the past 24 hours, Queensland recorded 2,222 new positive COVID-19 cases which brings Queensland’s active number of cases to 8,586. Despite the substantial number of cases, there are still no COVID-19 patients in ICU or on a ventilator across the state which is good news.
Metro North Health staff with COVID-19
There are a number of Metro North Health staff who have COVID-19. None are acutely unwell and we wish them well. There are also a number of Metro North Health staff who are in quarantine awaiting results.
The Staff Fever Clinic at the RBWH Education Centre is open from 9am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday. Please note that this facility cannot process staff from other HHS or private facilities.
Any Metro North employee and their family can attend. The staff member must attend and bring their staff ID and Medicare card.
Redefinition of close and casual contacts
Further advice will be distributed shortly around the national approach to redefining close and casual contacts.
Fever and Vaccination Clinic activity
In the last 24 hours, we have seen a major surge in people presenting to our Fever and Vaccination Clinics. Brighton Fever Clinic alone tested around 800 people yesterday.
As a result of these increases, we have had to redeploy additional staff from across the health service to support these clinics.
I would like to give a big shout to all the staff who have stepped up to support us in meeting these demands and keeping our community safe at this time. Everyone has done an outstanding job and I commend you on your great efforts.
Tier 3 (minus) – students and volunteers
Metro North remains in Tier 3 (minus). At this stage, students who are double vaccinated and can wear a P2/N95 mask can remain in the workplace. Students are to do a fit check of their mask, as they are not to have access to our fit testing at this point in time. The priority for fit testing is for our own staff.
Volunteers should not be in the workplace while we remain on Tier 3.
Changing our thinking
In the coming weeks, we can expect to see more and more of our staff and patients testing positive to COVID-19. It is inevitable that COVID-19 will become the new norm for our health service, particularly in our acute facilities.
With this in mind, as an organisation, we need to start changing our thinking towards this premise, and focus on how we can continue to effectively deliver care in a COVID-19 environment. In the next few weeks, our teams will be carefully reviewing current systems and processes as part of our COVID-19 response plan. I will keep you updated about these changes as more information comes to hand.
Supporting each other
I can’t emphasise enough the importance of supporting each other during this period of change and uncertainty. I ask that in the midst of this pandemic, we remember the organisational values and show respect and compassion in our day-to-day interactions with our colleagues, particularly those working in areas such as our fever and vaccination clinics, concierge and our fit testing clinics. We have had some instances in the last few days where some staff have showed poor conduct towards other staff who are just trying to do their job to the best of their ability. If we can do our jobs with the values in mind, the current journey we are all on, hopefully will become a little bit easier.
Kind regards,
Louise O’Riordan
Metro North Health Incident Controller
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