The Health Minister has issued a Ministerial Direction that requires sexual assault victims presenting at Caboolture Hospital Emergency Department (and others across Queensland that are listed in the Direction) to be seen within 10 minutes of presenting.

It’s the first time a Ministerial Direction has been issued and reinforces a strong commitment to providing timely and trauma-informed care to victims of sexual assault. Comprehensive resources and training are available.

While the Direction does not specifically mention Kilcoy Hospital’s Emergency Department, any person who presents with a history consistent with sexual assault should be started on a trauma informed care pathway, including arranging a specialist examination that is appropriate to the scenario and the patient’s wishes.

We will continue to work with Metro North to ensure that this vulnerable group are treated appropriately and within timeframes.  We are also working as a health service to ensure that we continue to ensure that our staff are appropriately educated and informed.

Our Infrastructure Vision

The past couple of weeks at CKW have truly been time of celebration and reflection and I have certainly enjoyed seeing and listening to our wonderful human stories of achievement and resilience.

I also wanted to take a moment to reflect on our changing and evolving built environment, where older Caboolture Hospital buildings now sit alongside new efficiently designed buildings which have exteriors adorned with Aboriginal and Torres Start Islander artwork.

Together with the Caboolture Satellite Hospital, which is sensitively placed in the community, our new Clinical Services Building (CSB) with spaces purposefully designed with patients and staff in mind, a new BEMS building designed to meet our growing needs and a new efficient car park – these new modern buildings signal our ongoing advancement and commitment to meet the needs of our community.

Everyday people’s lives are touched by the places that surround us. Good design in our buildings is more than how something looks, it’s also about future aspirations and how it makes people feel and connect.

With the Caboolture Satellite Hospital now fully operational and CSB welcoming our first patients, I’m sure you will agree that we have created inspiring spaces that support patient care, connect to community and contribute to staff and patient satisfaction.

Well done to the large multidisciplinary project and commissioning teams who have helped to realise our ‘infrastructure’ vision. It is such a wonderful time and I am so proud to be here during this time.

Living Our Values Project

I want to express my gratitude to all the participants who joined our Living our Values staff consultation sessions and drop-in sessions. Your stories and inputs are not just inspiring but also help us to shape the Values Charter in a way that highlights what makes CKW such a special place to work.

We have developed a digital form that allows all CKW staff the chance to contribute, bridging the gap for those who were unable to attend the face-to-face sessions due to work commitments and time constraints. The digital feedback form provides an opportunity for everyone to provide their input to the Draft CKW Values Charter at your convenience, from any location.

However, the survey will only be available for one more week, closing next Friday (1 December).

The form is available here: https://forms.gle/5Jm4JFn4b3VCa7ma9

Your input is valuable! Every submission counts greatly towards shaping our future. The survey, which should take around 5-8 minutes to complete, is being handled by our partners, Strategic Momentum Group (SMG) and your feedback will remain anonymous.

Every contribution refines the Values Charter and ensures your feedback shapes CKW’s future.

If you have any questions or need clarification about the survey or the process, email the project team or Lexi Mitchell from SMG.

Thank you once again for your invaluable contribution to this important piece of work.

Senior appointments

• Welcome Tracey McTigue who started with CKW on Monday as our Nursing Director for Emergency, Kilcoy, Woodford and our satellite hospitals.

• Congratulations to Anne Padayachee has been permanently appointed as CKW Director of Allied Health. Anne has been acting in this role for the past few months. I very happy for her and very happy for CKW – she will continue to do a great job in this role!

• Well done to Stephanie Webster, who has been permanently appointed to the role of Midwifery Unit Manager in the Women, Children and Families Service Line. Stephanie has done a wonderful job while acting in the role for the past two years.

• Nikia Goldsmith will be Acting Director of Nursing and Midwifery from Monday 4 December 2023 to Monday 7 January 2024. This is backfill for planned leave.

• Katrina Cook will be acting Nursing Director Surgical and Intensive Care from Monday 27 November to Friday 29 December to backfill planned leave. Congratulations, Katrina!

At present, we are recruiting for a CKW Director of Medical Services and CKW Director Planning and Performance. Visit Smart Jobs for more details.

Caboolture Hospital Transit Lounge extended hours

The Caboolture Hospital Transit Lounge is now open longer:

• 7am to 9.30pm Monday to Friday
• 8am to 4.30pm Saturday and Sunday

Please share this information with your colleagues. Regular use of the Transit Lounge continues to be one the best ways to improve flow. Let’s keep Jess and the team busy!

GLAD to become ACCU

From next Friday (1 December), we’re changing Gentleman and Ladies Aging with Dignity (GLAD) to Acute Cognitive Care Unit (ACCU).

This is the only change. All other aspects will remain the same, including its location within Ward 3B.

CKW research grants

Our friends at The Common Good will soon officially launch two rounds of research grants for CKW staff.

The CKW Health Research Grants will enable research projects that address a clinical need at Caboolture Hospital, Kilcoy Hospital and/or Woodford Corrections Health. In this round there will be two streams:

• Novice Researcher Grants valued up to $10,000
• Experienced Researcher Grants valued up to $20,000

The CKW and University of Sunshine Coast Collaborative Grants are designed to encourage collaboration between CKW and USC researchers that address a clinical need at Caboolture Hospital, Kilcoy Hospital and /or Woodford Corrections Health. Grants up to $40,000 will be available.

Applications for both grant programs will open on Monday 11 December 2023 and close on Friday 8 March 2024. For more details, contact Acting Research Director Dr Thuy Frakking.

CKW ESM transition to BAU

The CKW Enterprise Scheduling Management (ESM) Go-Live and HyperCare Support functions have transitioned to business-as-usual (BAU) processes and teams.

Staff training and provisioning to ESM will be managed by the CKW Health Informatics team. Contact: Cab-HIS-Health-Informatics@health.qld.gov.au for further information.

For support during the week, please contact the CKW Health Informatics team via email at: Cab-HIS-Health-Informatics@health.qld.gov.au

For support after-hours, log a job online with IT Support or call 1800 198 175. You can prioritise your IT Support call for matters impacting clinical care or services by pressing #1.

If necessary, you can escalate a Digital Clinical Incident to Digital Metro North (DMN) Clinical Informatics on-call via the RBWH Switch. Phone 3646 8111.

A big thank-you to all Caboolture, Kilcoy, and Woodford staff for your collaboration, positivity and proactiveness in enabling a successful ESM go-live.

Tickets available for Metro North Staff Excellence Awards

Tickets to the Metro North Staff Excellence Awards are now on sale! The event will once again be held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on Friday 15 December.

The awards celebrate staff who make a significant contribution and demonstrate a strong commitment to our Metro North values.

I am planning on attending. While I will no longer officially be the CKW Executive Director, I will absolutely be cheering for the CKW nominees!

I do know who the nominees are… sorry no bribes accepted! They are outstanding individuals and teams, so I am so excited to see CKW do well on the big stage.

The acknowledgement of great work is so important. I am so impressed by the calibre of the people and the nominations received!

More information and reserve your tickets.

Second CKW Health Equity Workshop

The Metro North Health Equity Strategy describes our commitment to drive health equity, eliminate institutional racism across the public health system and achieve life expectancy parity for Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples by 2031.

The second CKW Health Equity workshop this week was a great opportunity to engage, listen and learn from our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, as we work together to develop a local Health Equity Implementation Plan for Caboolture and Kilcoy Hospitals and Woodford Corrections Health (CKW).

We must ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who access the CKW Health Services are involved in, and have a say in, the finalisation of the local plan for making our health services more equitable for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

I was glad to be involved in some robust discussions and pleased with the outcomes. However, there is still a lot more work to do with further working group meetings to be set up.

We’re legally required to do this work but I also really want us to do this important work to close the gap for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients, families and the community.

UQ medical students celebrate another successful year at Caboolture Hospital

Semester 2 Year 3 and Year 4 Doctor of Medicine students from the University of Queensland held their end of year break up with our Education RMO Dr Sarah Ahmed and some of our educators, including Dr Lisa Kane, Dr William Zhang and Dr Ashkan Majedi.

UQ had 75 students completing 141 placements at Caboolture this year.

Feedback from the students was very positive, they have enjoyed the experiences and the exceptional teaching that they have received (see comments below). Over 200 teaching sessions were achieved and we are grateful to all of the educators that have taken time out to teach, mentor and support our students.

Also announced at the Caboolture Hospital Educator of the Year Awards was ‘Student Voted Best Educator’ – Dr Jaisil Punnasseril and ‘Student Voted Best Education RMO’ – Dr Sarah Ahmed.

Our goal is to make Caboolture the ‘go to’ destination not only for placements but for internships post graduating.

Understanding gifts and sponsorships

Lots of great work has been done this year to build partnerships with our community. Partnerships and collaborations are important, but as public sector employees, we’re also bound by rules around gifts and sponsorships.

With Christmas nearly here, it’s time to remind ourselves of those rules about which gifts can be accepted, what needs to be declared, and what should be declined.

Planning is now also well underway for hospital events and training sessions for next year.

If your team is planning an event, education or training session that involves a company or organisation providing “free” catering, this may be a sponsorship that needs approval at the Metro North level.

More information about how sponsorships work is available on QHEPS or by talking to Metro North Communications.

What a compliment!

I was happy to see this great compliment on a community Facebook page on the care her son received from Caboolture Emergency Department team:

‘I would like to publicly thank the Caboolture Hospital emergency team…. My nine year old son had two seizures that they had to intubate him,’ the mother wrote.

‘The emergency team were amazing, even though I had tunnel vision on what was happening at the time.

‘The emergency team acted so quickly and knew exactly how to handle an emotional mum while treating her baby boy.

‘This is just to publicly announce how amazing a job the emergency department did that day.’

Finally,

I wish I could say that this weekend was going to be a quiet one…. but alas not!

I love this time of year but I find it so busy and so exhausting.  I am the world’s worst at being well prepared for Christmas and as a result I spend far too much money on gifts, forget what I have and what I need to get and end up tired, cranky with a very annoyed husband!

However, I do plan to take Dave (the dog) for a long walk and spend some time with my wonderful grandchildren.  The rest of my weekend challenges will fit in around those two important events.

So, as busy as I am, and as busy as I know all of you are, let’s have a great weekend.

I hope that after a week of rain we get a weekend of sunshine! I hope those that are in the new Clinical Services Building have a lovely time in their new digs and I can’t wait to move more in next week!

Stay safe,

Alanna.