30 March 2021
Dear colleagues,
It’s been a busy 24 hours across Metro North, with 26 COVID-19 positive patients currently in our care. Overnight there were 10 new cases: two cases were acquired overseas and detected in hotel quarantine, and eight cases were locally acquired. Six of the locally acquired cases are close contacts of confirmed cases, and the two other cases are still under investigation.
From 2pm today the Princess Alexandra Hospital is only accepting tertiary and acute emergency patients. We are assessing the impact of this action on our health service and patient care and will keep you informed as we know more.
Our fever clinics are continuing to see an increase in demand. We are working hard to manage wait times and putting measures in place to support clinics that have waiting times of more than an hour. I’d like to thank the staff working in our fever clinics for their ability to flex up and support the community during what is a very stressful time.
Staff working with COVID-19 patients
Today the Chief Health Officer announced that as of tomorrow, only staff who have at least received their first dose of either COVID-19 vaccine will be permitted to work with COVID-positive patients. Please liaise with your line manager if you are working with COVID patients and have not yet been vaccinated. Daily saliva monitoring will also be provided to these staff.
Support for staff
To ensure we are looking after our staff, the COVID-19 HR Hotline is up and running again. Staff can contact the hotline by calling 3647 2819, emailing MetroNorthHR@health.qld.gov.au or visiting the website.
Please remember to check in on each other during these difficult times. It can be as simple as taking a moment to ask, “are you ok?”.
We are still awaiting advice from the State Health Emergency Coordination Centre in regard to movements across the health service. Please continue to minimise your movements where possible during the lockdown, and, of course, don’t forget to practice physical distancing and good hand hygiene.
Regards,
Mark Butterworth
Metro North Incident Controller
Metro North HHS – overview of cases*
|
HHS |
Patients being managed by HHS | FEVER Clinics | |||||||
| Total In-patients |
Virtual Ward / HITH / or similar |
Deaths ** |
Total cases managed by HHS (including recovered) *** |
# of clinics |
Presentations |
||||
| ICU Pts | |||||||||
|
ICU-NOT Ventilated |
ICU-Ventilated |
Last 24 hrs |
TOTAL^ |
||||||
| MN TOTAL | 24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 513 | 5 | 1,604 | 157,888 |
*With effect 30 March 2021, 0900
**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.