Adj Prof Jackie Hanson, Chief Executive
This is my first week back from leave. Thank you to Jane Hancock for acting as Chief Executive while I was away, and to Glynis Schultz and Louise Oriti for acting as Chief Operating Officer.
Metro North staff continue to respond amazingly to unprecedented and sustained demand. You all go out of your way every day to care for our community. Sadly, in a complex system, things sometimes do not have the expected or intended outcome. The impact for all involved is difficult. Unfortunately, this can be portrayed in the media, adding to the distress and sadness. Please be assured that we value you all all let us know what we can do to support you and or your teams through these times. Finally, never forget our Metro North values and how to care for our patients and families who have experienced unexpected outcomes. Thanks for all you do.
Unfortunately, I also need to remind everyone about our Respect @ Work framework. Disappointingly we are still seeing reports of unacceptable behaviours in the workplace.
King’s Birthday Honours
Congratulations to Associate Professor Anthony Holley AM and Professor Greg Scalia AM who were recognised in this week’s King’s Birthday Honours.
Health equity
I was disappointed to miss some significant events in our journey to health equity and reconciliation in the past month, particularly the Redcliffe Hospital acknowledgement of stolen wages and the co-naming of the Bribie Island Satellite Hospital (Yarun).
Metro North is now about halfway through implementing our Health Equity Strategy and, while there’s still more to do, we are making some excellent progress against some of our targets. We will host our next Health Equity Showcase on Thursday 27 June at Eatons Hill to highlight the successes.
Aboriginal design and cultural safety
The walls, windows, paving and gardens of the three Metro North satellite hospitals are providing a unique canvas for cultural and physical healing.
Local Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi Traditional Owner artists were commissioned to design a mural for each facility, with key design aspects of it weaving throughout building features like walls and windows.
According to Metro North Executive Director of Sustainable Assets and Infrastructure David Walker, Metro North’s Satellite Hospitals are a great example of how Aboriginal design is used to help connect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and their families to the facilities.
“By creating culturally safe environments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, incorporating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artwork into the building design process provides connection and cultural significance for the community, and makes our health facilities feel more welcoming for visiting patients and community members,” said David.
First Nations Cadets
Better Together Health Van and staff
The Healthcare Excellence and Innovation (HEI) Telehealth team and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Leadership Team have also partnered to telehealth enable the Better Together Health Van.
The van can now provide patients with telehealth appointments where appropriate, and provide broader reach for screening programs through telehealth. It also will provide opportunistic education about telehealth services.
First Nations Cadets
This week we held a showcase for the statewide First Nations Cadets program which Metro North is hosting. Earlier this year we were successful in getting funding from the Chief First Nations Health Officer to expand our cadetship program across the state to provide 68 young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with on-the-job training in clinical roles. Thanks to Mark Butterworth and Metro North Allied Health for shepherding the program to success.
Innovation showcase
Today we also held the first Metro North Innovation Showcase, celebrating the first year of the HELIX Hub. The event highlights the value in working together to bring great ideas into practice to improve patient outcomes and find new and better ways of working. Congratulations to everyone who has worked through the HELIX Hub process to get your idea from concept to concrete.
Metro North coaching
One of the programs we have developed in response to the Have Your Say staff survey is the Metro North Coaching program. I was able to drop into the graduation for our new coaches earlier this week. The coaching program is part of Metro North’s commitment to supporting staff by developing coaching skills and making free coaching available to staff for your further development.
Health Careers Expo
Metro North was part of the #GoHealth Careers Expo held at the RNA Showgrounds on Thursday. The Expo was an interactive, immersive health career experience for high school students from across the state. Queensland Health, Health Gateway to Industry Schools Program and health organisations across Queensland collaborated to engage students in future health careers. Metro North had three stands highlighting traineeships and cadetships, and medical, allied health and nursing careers and pathways. The stalls were popular with a large number of students talking to our staff and test driving clinical skills equipment.
We also hosted some students from Djarragun College (Cairns), Kirwan State High School (Townsville), Heatley Secondary College (Townsville) and Bwgcolman Community School (Palm Island) on Wednesday for a showcase day at RBWH and CSDS with very positive feedback. The tour included Nursing and Midwifery, Food Services, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Pathology, Orthotics and Prosthetics and CSDS medical simulations.
Giving Day
On Wednesday RBWH Foundation held its annual Giving Day at Herston Health Precinct and raised $750,000. Thank you to everyone to participated and donated.
RBWH physiotherapy assistant and former patient Reece Crawford ran on the treadmill for hours to raise money for the Foundation! He was even joined by the Dolphins mascot Phinny for a stint. Well done on another fantastic effort, Reece!
Last week we moved to Tier 1 in our Acute Respiratory Illness plan and there have been quite a few staff with COVID or flu recently. If you haven’t had your COVID and flu jabs this year, now is the time!
Kind regards,
Jackie.