Adj Prof Jackie Hanson, Chief Executive

Ward 3C opens

New Clinical Services Building

The move into the new Caboolture Hospital Clinical Services Building started this week. The first patients were moved into the new Palliative Care Unit and Geriatric Evaluation and Management Unit. The move will continue over the next week. Well done on a safe move.

This building has been a long time coming and I want to thank everyone who has been involved in the Caboolture Hospital Redevelopment Project from day one through to the completion, and to all the Caboolture Hospital staff who have been working in a changing physical environment over the past few years. While the new building is now clinically operational, there is still a lot of work to be done before the hospital redevelopment is complete. It’s an enormous body of work and will make a huge difference for patients. Thank you.

Accreditation

Many of our hospitals have gone through short notice accreditation assessment, and it was The Prince Charles Hospital’s turn last week. Community and Oral Health has also been fully accredited for the next 12 months, meeting all actions listed in every standard. We have been receiving an outstanding range of feedback from the assessors. Well done to the staff and leadership teams in the directorates, and to the Metro North Clinical Governance Unit, in particular Grant Carey-Ide.

Share your ideas

There have been some very sad outcomes in in the last few weeks, particularly in South East Queensland. Whenever I visit our facilities and meet with staff, I talk to people who have great ideas and potential initiatives on how we can shift what we do and how we do it. A view shared by some clinicians is that poor flow relates to poor culture particularly within the senior medical officer space. I urge you to connect and communicate for safety. Metro North is very well known for innovative thinking, so if you’ve got an idea, please go for gold. The Helix Hub is a great resource for staff to help you develop and implement your innovative ideas.

Health Equity

The second annual Metro North Health Equity Showcase will be held on Wednesday 6 December at the Caboolture Hub. The event will feature a variety of speakers and presentations throughout the day including updates for staff, stakeholders and community on how we’re progressing with the Health Equity Strategy implementation. Last year’s event was a fantastic opportunity to hear from colleagues across Metro North on local initiatives and programs. If you’re able to attend, I highly recommend it.

Disability Action Week

Next week is Disability Action Week. Disability Action Week 2023 (25 November to 2 December) celebrates Queenslanders with disability and the contributions they make to our families, communities, workplaces, and economy. This year’s theme, ‘Access ignites: it’s good business’, focuses on increasing employment and economic participation of people with disability, including the benefits of recruiting and retaining staff with disability and ensuring accessibility for people living with disability.

Festive season reminder

As the festive season builds, it’s timely to remind everyone about the Gifts and Benefits policy, Gift Cards procedure, Sponsorship policy, and Meals and Hospitality procedure, and the Queensland Public Sector Code of Conduct. We all want to have fun and celebrate with our colleagues, but as public sector employees we also need to ensure our behaviour is in line with public expectations and our Metro North values.

Speaking of the festive season, tickets are on sale for the Metro North Staff Excellence Awards gala dinner. If your team hasn’t organised an end of year get together, the gala dinner is an excellent option. Judging for the awards has wrapped up and we’ll be
announcing finalists shortly.

Kind regards,

Jackie.