Dear colleagues,

This week the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality launched the new Preventing and Controlling Infections Standard which supersedes the 2017 Preventing and Controlling Healthcare-Associated Infection Standard.

Incorporating lessons learnt from the COVID-19 response, the new Standard provides support to health service organisations in order to prevent, control and respond to all infections including those that cause outbreaks, epidemics/pandemics, including novel and emerging infection. The revised Standard clarifies and recognises the relationship between healthcare worker safety and patient safety, promotes the use of a hierarchy of controls to design infection prevention and control programs and encourages a precautionary approach to the implementation and use of transmission based precautions.

Health service organisations are required to commence implementation of this new Standard immediately and will be assessed against compliance with the Standard at their next accreditation assessment. A fact sheet outlining the differences between the new and old version of the Standard is available online.

Clinical Excellence Queensland have announced dates for their Clinical Excellence Showcase, with the theme Maintaining healthcare delivery during a pandemic. The two-day event will be held at the Brisbane Powerhouse between 5-6 October 2021. I encourage and invite all staff to submit an abstract by 14 June 2021. More information can be found on the Clinical Excellence Queensland website.

Metro North has expanded fit testing into the hotel quarantine space, and now includes Queensland Policy Service, Defence, and hotel support staff. Well done to the Clinical Skills Development Service team for continuing to step up and support this process to keep our patients and staff safe.

As at yesterday afternoon, Metro North has recorded 4,797 fit tests. This includes 4,628 Metro North employees as well as hotel quarantine workers.

Lastly, I’m pleased to announce that after many weeks managing the BD Alaris recall, our last site has commenced their swap out of affected stock. This large body of work could not have been possible without the values in action displayed by all staff involved with managing this situation.

Thank you to everybody who has played a part in keeping our patients safe and informed.

Regards,

Michele