Today we celebrate both Administrative Professionals Day and International Day of the Midwife. Across Metro North there are various celebrations and recognition activities happening to acknowledge the integral work of our admin staff and midwives. Whether it’s welcoming someone into the hospital or into the world, Metro North Health would be lost without midwives and administration staff. Thank you!

I also want to reflect on what has been a sad week for many staff across Metro North and Queensland Health who have lost friends and colleagues. As healthcare workers, it’s our job to care for others every day and the professionalism you all show even when dealing with personal sadness is admirable. Thank you.

Workforce Reform Summit

On Tuesday I attended the Metro North Workforce Reform Summit, hosted by our People and Culture team. The summit brought together more than 150 participants including Metro North leaders involved in facility/directorate workforce planning, an international guest speaker, government and community representatives, industry and health economic experts, as well as tertiary and industrial partners, to address current and future workforce challenges and plan for the future of work at Metro North.

Thank you to all staff who provided feedback and ideas in the lead up to the summit. These were included in the discussion and considered by the participants. The top themes for the summit included:

• More training and career pathways
• Optimised and integrated ways of working (top of scope, technology)
• Improved employment practices (flexibility, culture, wellbeing).

Participants workshopped and prioritised initiatives to support and retain our current workforce, build new pipelines of talent, and adapt and innovative new ways to deliver services. A huge thank you to everyone who participated.

We will now begin developing a Metro North Workforce Reform Roadmap which will prioritise the actions to drive sustainable workforce initiatives over the next decade, alongside Queensland Health’s 10-year workforce strategy. There will be opportunities for you to provide feedback on the draft roadmap. If you have any questions or would like to get involved in the early stages of the draft roadmap, please email the MNH Workforce Reform Team.

Health Equity

Metro North Health is committed to achieving health equity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and supports the Close the Gap 2031 Agreement to create healthy societies, healthy environments, healthy communities, and healthy peoples.

We recognise that still in 2023, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to experience disparities and inequities accessing health services, their experiences with health and wellbeing services, and their overall health outcomes. Regardless of our roles in Metro North, we all have an important part to play in changing the experiences and outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

I am pleased to report the Metro North Health Equity Implementation and Evaluation Plan 2022–2025 has now been endorsed and published. The Implementation Plan was developed in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders, community stakeholders, our Executive team within Metro North, and external partner organisations.

The actions outlined in the Implementation and Evaluation Plan demonstrate our commitment to the health equity reform agenda and improving health outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the whole health care system.

The Implementation and Evaluation Plan provides a priority for the delivery of strategies and actions in Our Journey Towards Health Equity, Metro North Health Equity Strategy 2022-2025 and assigns accountability to the areas responsible for each action at Metro North Health and ongoing monitoring / reporting responsibilities.

One important way we are working to reduce inequity is through the Better Together Medication Access program which provides a road to recovery by lowering financial and logistical medication access barriers.

Since the program launched in October 2020, 15,000 consumers have been offered BTMA and 12,000 medications supplied. The program is a great example of how, through innovation, system enhancements and investment, we can have a profound impact on improving the long-term health outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

I am pleased to formally launch a series of educational films about the program and encourage you to think about how you can support this great initiative across Metro North Health.

HealthQ32

This week the Minister for Health launched HealthQ32: our vision for Queensland’s health system. I encourage you all to take some time to read through the strategy which looks at Queensland Health’s key system priorities for the next decade to deliver better care where it’s needed.

Heart Week

Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death for Queenslanders, and second only to dementia as the leading cause of death for women. This week is Heart Week and, while we are often focussed on the health of others, we also need to take the time to look after our own health. You might also like to take the opportunity to talk to your family about your wishes regarding the gift of organ and tissue donation.

It’s fitting that during Heart Week, The Prince Charles Hospital has once again ranked in the world’s top 250 hospitals in the Newsweek poll.

Congratulations also to Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital which is also featured in the world’s top 250 hospitals list. RBWH has also been recognised in the poll previously as a leader in cancer care services.

Health Forum

Next Wednesday Metro North and the Brisbane North PHN are hosting the Metro North Health Forum. The forum is an opportunity for connection, collaboration and networking with your colleagues from across our region, and in celebration of this year’s theme – Progress through partnerships. To find out more about the forum and our speaker line-up, visit www.health2gether.org.au.

Accreditation

This afternoon I held a vidcast on accreditation and Standard 4: Medication Safety with Martin Canning. The recording will be available on QHEPS next week. You can also watch the recordings for the previous vidcasts in this series online.

Thank you

I would also like to thank our emergency and critical care teams for your work this week. We don’t always reflect on how confronting it can be to deliver frontline health services. This week we sadly saw two firefighters, one of whom has now passed away, who were treated and cared for by our teams. I want to thank you for your efforts and ask you to please take care of each other, and to reach out if you need someone to talk to. You are precious.

Kind regards,

Jackie.