Well, we are nearly there! The Caboolture Satellite Hospital will open on Thursday (3 August).

It will offer a range of outpatient-based services, the new Minor Injury and Illness Clinic and the new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Hub.

It’s a remarkable achievement by so many teams at CKW and across Metro North Health to be ready so quickly.

The satellite hospital is a great facility and a real step forward towards improving the health of the Caboolture community.

On Monday from 10am to 1.30pm, the community open day will also be another chance for staff to look around the facility before it is busy with patients. It is a very impressive building, light and fresh and the artwork is simply incredible!

The open day will include facility tours, food trucks, roaming entertainment, live music and health information stalls.

We will run a shuttle bus again for staff, departing the Caboolture Hospital Main entrance every 15 minutes from 9.45am – 1.30pm and return. Easy! Please jump on board the bus if you have time to come and visit our newest facility.

I am so excited to be part of this, but I would like to thank all of the people who have got us to this point. Well done.

It seems I am here for the glory of the opening but haven’t had to do all the hard yards to get there. I am so impressed with the tenacity and diligence of all those involved. Congratulations and I am looking forward to next week!

Special tour for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff and families

The new Caboolture Satellite Hospital Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Hub will offer a nurse navigator service, Ngarrama maternal health and peri-natal mental health services.

Design and delivery of this service is of huge significance.

It represents our ability to be agile and adaptable to community needs and as a result provide effective health care that is accessible, responsive and culturally respectful.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Hub will be offered at Caboolture, Kallangur and Bribie Island satellite hospitals, helping to overcome many of the barriers faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons.  This is just one more step in achieving health equity for our communities and I am so proud and pleased to be a part of this journey.

I want to thank the members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Leadership Team and our own CKW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Services team, which helped to co-design the navigator service and align it to the existing Ngarrama and Maternal Mental Health Services.

We had a lot of interest in the positions we have had advertised and it is wonderful to add so many skilled health professionals to our teams.

This strong interest and representation has an important role in reducing patient anxiety and improving the quality of communication for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients through cultural understanding.

World Breastfeeding Week

World Breastfeeding Week is a global campaign to raise awareness and galvanise action on themes related to breastfeeding. It is celebrated annually from 1-7 August.

Caboolture Hospital Lactation Consultants Elise Dioth and Jane Millard will set-up a stand in the central corridor next week with more details on enabling breastfeeding, which makes a real difference for working parents.

I will get in touch with Elise and Jane about a staff breastfeeding room at Caboolture Hospital and see what we can do to make this happen. I was surprised to hear that we don’t already have a comfortable and private space on-site for this purpose, so I will work with them and our facilities team to set-up a suitable location asap. Watch this space!

As a mum of twins (now nearly 30…how did they get that old… or, rather, how did I get this old?), I know this would have greatly assisted my ability to work and feed my babies, so I will do what I can to support Elise and Jane in their quest to enable this for staff.

CKW Staff Council’s Winter Warmer

A warm cup of soup and bread roll were top of the menu at Caboolture Hospital this week.

The CKW Staff Council put together a ‘Winter Warmer’ lunch for several clinical areas this week as a small thank you for everyone’s hard work and commitment during the busy winter period.

Here’s the wonderful nursing team from Ward 2A – including NUM Colleen Hermann – just about to tuck in!

I didn’t actually get any myself but I heard it was delicious and I hope everyone enjoyed it. Thank you so much to the CKW Staff Council but also all who gave of their busy workday to serve and deliver!

Enjoy your retirement, Vicki!

Congratulations to Caboolture Hospital PACU nurse Vicki Pennington, who retired earlier this month.

Vicki had been a nurse for 50 years and worked at Caboolture Hospital since the day it opened almost 30 years ago now.

Most of Vicki’s career has been at Caboolture. She told colleagues at a farewell event recently that Caboolture was the best hospital she had worked.

Even after bidding Vicki farewell recently, the peri-op area still has three nurses who have been with Caboolture Hospital since day 1 in the early 1990s.

Congratulations Vicki and I wish you well for your retirement.  Thank you for everything you have done for both the patients you cared for over so many years and the staff who are so thankful for the opportunity to have worked alongside you.

Finally,

The Caboolture Hospital network upgrade, previously scheduled for last Wednesday (26 July) will now happen this Wednesday (2 August) from 9.30pm. The outage is required to connect the Queensland Health network into the new Clinical Services Building (CSB).

If you’re working on Wednesday night, please take some time to familiarise yourself on downtime procedures and check that systems are functioning normally once the change is complete.

As I sign off after my fourth week at Caboolture, Kilcoy and Woodford, I want to thank you so very much for all that you do and all that you give.

I have been made to feel very welcome and although we all work so incredibly hard and we have challenges, we also have so many opportunities to build and grow this wonderful directorate.

Have a wonderful weekend and I look forward to an exciting CKW-filled week next week!

Kind regards,

Alanna.