Welcome back everyone and happy New Year!

As we head into 2024, I really do want to acknowledge our staff who worked over the traditional festive season.

Working in health care is a true privilege, but the nature of our work means a large proportion of our workforce often give up precious time with their families to care for our patients, clients and their families.

For those people who require care during these periods, and for those of us who are not here on site during these times, we are grateful for those of you that were here providing care and adding some kindness and joy.

For those staff who had time off over the festive season, I hope you enjoyed time celebrating, relaxing and finding some joy during your break.

he year ahead

On the back of our successful Accreditation, and for Caboolture the move into CHRP, in 2024 we will continue to focus on:

• the delivery of safe, compassionate and quality care
• engaging with our communities
• continued infrastructure development
• growth of innovative services
• recruitment of amazing people to join our team.

Caboolture Hospital refurbishment

Refurbishment works commence on 15 January 2024, and despite the noise and some minor pedestrian inconvenience, this is an exciting project for our staff as well as the community of the beautiful Moreton Bay region.

As old buildings and spaces are transformed into purpose-built areas to accommodate the new transit lounge and services including pharmacy and social work, I think it strongly signals Metro North and CKW’s commitment to invest in the health of our community and the wellness of our staff.

CKW’s place in the community isn’t just as a place of care. We are connected to community through our health education, health promotion and out-reach programs as well as ‘care closer to home’ services like the Caboolture Satellite Hospital and Ngarrama Midwifery Group practice. We also contribute economically as employers and purchasers of local services.

Activities like this are integral to our identity and culture, and they all play a part in shaping us this year.

Preventing the need for an ED visit

During its first Christmas, Caboolture Satellite Hospital Minor Injuries and Illness Centre provided an option of care for our community that avoided the need for an ED visit. It was certainly a busy period and in collaboration with the Virtual ED team, our team provided great support to those needing minor illness or injury review. The workload continues to increase and the team are truly focused on making the experience a positive one for patients.

This is so important as we continue to see demand on our ED across the state including Caboolture. Any ED avoidance strategies are great for individual patients and our community.

Bribie Island Satellite Hospital

We are working towards the opening of Bribie Island Satellite Hospital this year. As many of you will have heard the Government has announced that the services will expand to include some chemotherapy infusions. The impact of these services on the opening date are being worked through as the capital works/build has increased with this announcement.

Workforce planning is currently in progress, and recruitment is expected to commence in March.

Kilcoy Hospital

As I continue my own orientation to the Caboolture, Kilcoy and Woodford teams, this week I visited the team at Kilcoy Hospital. It was a truly fantastic day and I enjoyed talking to staff and patients.

I was struck by the calm and healing feel of the environment. As I was invited to morning tea with the Allied Health team it was amazing to hear about why they worked there, the positive impact of the team and how they felt they were enabled to do a great job for their patients.

It was interesting to hear that a minority of the patients on the ward are from the Kilcoy region, and while patients are sometimes initially reluctant to be moved to the service at Kilcoy, once they have been (if the necessity for a further admission arises) they are keen to go back.

The nursing and medical team certainly have an interesting role across the Emergency Care facility and ward, and talked about the breadth of their roles, the skills they need to do their jobs effectively and how much they enjoyed their work.

The commitment to the community from the staff and the multidisciplinary respect across the entire site was evident, along with a true ‘can do’ ethos.

The patients also provided fantastic feedback about their experience across the facility and their gratitude for the service the hospital provides.

Thank you to David who took the time to do a full tour, and to all the team at Kilcoy who welcomed me. I certainly did not want to leave at the end and look forward to my next visit.

Woodford Correctional Health Medical Centre

I also meet with the Health Centre staff at Woodford Correctional Centre. I was impressed at the commitment of the staff to provide preventative, acute and chronic care to their clients at the Centre.

The team were very proud to tell me about their work, the variety of the job, the benefits of twelve-hour shifts (this featured highly!) and the great team they worked in.

It was impressive to see the work they do in the very constrained environment. But the team have an impressive set up to manage the breadth of work and care they provide in what can be a challenging environment.

It was interesting to also hear from the Corrections team and the Health Centre Staff about the respectful and very symbiotic relationship they have which allows them to get through the many challenges that arise with managing the interlinking pieces required to provide care.

We will certainly showcase some of the amazing research and practices that our team have introduced – they are certainly leading practice change across Prison Health services.

I look forward to seeing the team again soon, but a big thank you to Paul who showed me around and to the team who welcomed me and have promised to share stories and knowledge with me in the future.

Week 1, 2024

This week, there was an emergency situation within the Caboolture Hospital grounds which involved a vehicular accident affecting a member of the public.

I wanted to acknowledge and thank the CKW staff who noticed the situation, and quickly acted as first responders. Administration and clinical staff from the outpatient team, and other CKW areas provided initial support to the gentleman, as well as initiating the call to QAS – who arrived very quickly on the scene.

Emergency situations at the best of times can be challenging and stressful and their successful management and resolution is highly reliant upon effective teamwork and effective coordination. Our thoughts are with the person involved in this incident and sincere thanks go to all staff who provided support.

Please remember support services are available for staff who need them and include:

• Telus Health
• Peer Responder Program Metro North (health.qld.gov.au)
• Metro North Staff Psychology Service

Staff support can also be accessed through the extranet, so people do not need to be on a work computer or device.

We also had an incident where our chillers were compromised for a short period in the new CHRP building. This was resolved quickly with thanks to the staff that reported the issue.

It is not unusual for new buildings to have a few teething issues, but making sure they remain small is reliant on us all taking the responsibility to report them as soon as they are noticed.

It is important to remember that now we are in the CHRP building any identified issues should be reported in the normal way:
Is it an emergency (e.g. power outage, burst pipe)

1. Alert your Line Managerimmediately (after hours call the Hospital Coordinator).
2. Your Line Manager/Hospital Coordinator will contact BEMS and follow with a work order.
3. BEMS will assess and organise response to the issue.

Is it a non-emergency (e.g. dent in wall, non essential lights not working, small water leaks in non clinical area etc)?

1. Contact your Line Manager or Hospital Coordinator
2. Your Line Manager will raise a work order with BEMS (as per the current CKW business-as-usual process)

Christmas decorations

Lastly don’t forget (in my very Grinch like way), the 6th of January is the day all Christmas decorations should be removed. Please make sure they have all been taken down carefully and tucked away safely.

Reflection on the week

It has been fantastic to get out to our sites this week and meet the staff. The thing that most strikes me is how kind, friendly and welcoming everyone has been. It has made me so grateful and happy to be part of the Caboolture, Kilcoy and Woodford team and have the opportunity to lead us into 2024 and beyond!

I really want to encourage us all to take a minute to reflect and think about our own internal strategies to ensure that we are reflecting this kindness to our patients (and each other) in times of pressure.

Kind, respectful and compassionate communication has been shown to have the highest impact on patient and family satisfaction. I have certainly found in my career that by being kind and listening to people, you can generally resolve most situations (or at least generate a feeling of care and compassion when you can not provide what the person most wants).

If you think about it, who would want to be or work anywhere if there was not kindness?

‘Kindness costs nothing but means everything’.

‘Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness and caring to change a person’s life’. Jackie Chan

I certainly watch this with my dogs when one is unwell or in trouble (they are just a little naughty!). They will circle in to be close to the other – often it is a touch or look but they are close and clearly there for each other.

Can we be the same for each other and our patients?

Regards,

Karlene.

Got a question for the Executive Director?  Email Ask Karlene.