Dear colleagues,
After six years of planning, recruiting, building, and schmoozing, our Herston Biofabrication Institute is now officially open! We started working on the HBI around the same time we started planning for STARS, so it’s fantastic to see both facilities come to fruition.
Last week we held an official opening with guests from HBI partners RBWH Foundation and The University of Queensland. HBI brings together clinicians and researchers to address clinician challenges and shorten the time between concept and patient treatment. Some of the cool things we’re doing in HBI are manufacturing custom implants and surgical guides, innovative burns treatment, and virtual and augmented reality.
HBI will also have some interaction with the Jamieson Trauma Institute which is now well established. JTI has created this video which shows how they see our institutes improving health outcomes in future.
Introducing Metro North Health
For the past few months we have been reviewing our Metro North identity. This is part of a bigger piece of work to understand how we identify our directorates, programs, and tiers of the organisation.
We are moving to the name Metro North Health (although we will continue to use Metro North Hospital and Health Service as our legal name). Metro North Health is in line with some of our colleague HHSs who are using similar names, like Metro South Health. It’s easier to say, to write and to understand for the community who don’t need to know what a HHS is.
Over the next three months we’ll roll out our new logo and name across our digital assets like our websites, online templates, and email signatures. As printed material reaches a natural review or update point, we’ll move it into the new branding. New templates and resources will be added to our QHEPS Templates and Communications sites as well.
#NextCare Health Conference
Our 2021 #NextCare Health Conference on 22 and 23 April is fast approaching. We have locked in some excellent speakers with a variety of health and non-health leadership experience. The full program will be released in the next couple of weeks. Registration for the two-day conference and the Leaders Breakfast are open now. Metro North and Queensland Health staff can register at a discounted rate. Our major sponsor for this year’s conference is Bond University.
An exciting addition to this year’s #NextCare Health Conference is the third annual Bond University Sustainable Healthcare Awards. The awards promote and raise awareness of best practice in high-value healthcare and recognise the achievements of leaders, advocates and innovators in this field who have overcome barriers to deliver better care. Nominations for the awards close on 22 March.
Movie by the Sea
Now that life has returned to normal-ish, we’re holding our staff and community Movie by the Sea on Saturday 20 March at Brighton Health Campus.
This year’s event will focus on Closing the Gap and will feature an animated short film from Aboriginal director ted by Aboriginal woman Leah Purcell, followed by the feature film Rabbit Proof Fence. Save the date and keep an eye on the Facebook event page for updates.
There will also be food trucks, children’s entertainment, the Better Together Health Van and a yarning tent with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders.
Ned and I got ourselves a smoker for our Christmas present to each other. It finally arrived two weeks ago and on the following weekend we had our first foray into cooking. There was keen interest from the whole family on what we are doing as you will see in the photo, Simon was offering his assistance as Sous Chef. I am not a fan of fur on our bourbon glazed pork ribs so his helped was refused. Six hours later we had the finished product and our Valentine’s Day dinner (I am not sure sticky ribs are particularly romantic but they taste great).
I’m taking the next few weeks off to recharge after a busy 12 months. Jackie Hanson will be Acting CE while I’m on leave.
Regards,
Shaun Drummond
Chief Executive
Metro North Hospital and Health Service