Queensland’s new traffic light advice system for living with COVID-19 was released earlier this week.

In simple terms, green means low community transmission of COVID-19, amber is moderate and red is high.

The good news is that under our current ‘green’ setting, masks are not required in a hospital and healthcare facility. However, they are still recommended for staff and visitors, particularly when providing care, supporting or visiting vulnerable patients.

There is also new advice for staff, contractors, students, visitors and your household contacts who have COVID-19.

While the declared public health emergency has finished, there is still COVID-19 and other viruses are circulating in our community so we should continue to maintain the key infection control measures such as staying home when you’re unwell, good hand hygiene and keep up to date with your vaccinations.

If you need further details, please speak with your line manager.

Special Care Nursery team wins national prize for reading to our little treasures

Congratulations to the Caboolture Hospital Special Care Nursery team, which recently won the national Life’s Little Treasures Read-a-thon competition!

Staff and parents read a large number of books to babies in the special care nursery during a two-week period in September – more than any other hospital across Australia.

Research has shown there are many benefits in reading to babies, from increased bonding to better voice recognition and improved language, reading and math skills in the future.

Neonatal nurse and Lactation Consultant Elise Dioth and Special Care Nursery Acting Coordinator Leish Blake are pictured here with a small selection of books from first prize, which will ensure that we can continue reading to our little treasures!

UQ medical students love Caboolture Hospital!

These are our Year 3 University of Queensland medical students who have loved every bit of their time at Caboolture Hospital.

They have just completed nine weeks in surgery and nine weeks in medicine.

A couple of the students have preferenced to return next year.

Congratulations to Lachlan Power, Ashkan Akbarian, Gianni Farfaglia and Nalin Kataria (pictured left).

A combination of the Year 3 and Year 4 students enjoyed an end of year celebration this week (picture below) with Senior Paediatrician and University of Queensland Clinical Site Coordinator Dr Lisa Kane, Dr Jaisil Punnasseril and University of Queensland Northside Clinical Unit Student Coordinator Gay Meikle.

What a compliment!

Here’s a wonderful compliment received recently about compassionate care provided by Caboolture Hospital midwife Lucie:

“My midwife Lucie from the Damara team has attended my home to check on myself and my baby.

“Lucie is amazing I cannot speak highly enough of her. She is so friendly and makes me feel very comfortable.

“Lucie was very thorough in completing the check-ups to ensure everything was going well with myself and baby. Lucie is so genuine and caring she is great at her job.”

Brief The Boss coming soon!

A reminder that my first ‘Brief the Boss’ session will be happening soon. Please come along to the Caboolture Hospital Central Courtyard on Wednesday 16 November between 12pm and 1pm to have a chat.

Don’t worry if you can make it on this date – I will have another sessions on Tuesday 13 December from 12.30pm to 1.30pm with further dates in 2023.

Finally,

I was so excited to see DPU NUM Graham Winbank once again smash his fundraising target for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation, raising more than $55,000!

Graham was featured in several media stories this week, including national exposure on Sunrise.

Well done, Graham. We’re very proud of you and your achievements for such an important cause.

Take Care,

Angie.