Well, Happy Friday everyone!

For some of us, Friday signals the end of a very busy week; for others you are mid-week and thinking about the next few days and how they are going to go; for others you are beginning your week.

This week has been and continues to be an extraordinarily busy week across our services.

On Monday, we saw with the busiest ever day for Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) across the State, which is always an indicator that we will be busy and there is no doubt we were. There was huge demand on our Emergency Department and consequently on all our services, which led to significant pressure on our ICU and all other ICUs across Metro North and Queensland.

It has been great to watch teams pull in and I really want to particularly commend the Emergency Department team, which was under unprecedented demand and subsequent pressure. Also, the ICU team which has really tried to stretch to accommodate the demand.

Meanwhile, all our inpatients services across CKW have been (and continue to be!) very busy this week with highly complex patients and I want to sincerely thank you all for the focus you all showed on the care of our patients and community – supporting our patients to efficiently move to the best care environment, allowing the ED to continue to care for those members of our community that needed help and letting QAS get back out to the community to respond to their calls for urgent assistance.

As we reflect on such a busy week, which is continuing as we remain on a Tier 3 and continue to see significant presentation to ED and patients requiring ICU care, it is so important that we keep a focus on the actions we take to care for our patients and continue their care efficiently through our system and how that enables the QAS to respond to triple 000 calls.

If you have ever waited or had a family member or loved one waiting for an ambulance in an emergency situation, you do not want it to be delayed.

International Women’s Week

Next week (3-10 March) is International Women’s Week.

What a wonderful opportunity to celebrate women. I personally take the time to celebrate all the amazing women in my life who have been amazing supports, role models and examples of great humans around me. But, in the broader sense, it is our opportunity to celebrate the many important roles that women have and ensure we have a positive environment where everyone can succeed and maximise their own individual potential.

It is also a time to bring our communities together to work towards creating a thriving, gender equal community. We all have a part to play in championing gender equality and making Queensland a great place to live, work and succeed for everyone.

Let’s all come together to celebrate the achievements of women at CKW and around the world.

To find out more visit www.qld.gov.au/womensweek.

I really challenge everyone to reflect and acknowledge those women in your lives that have made a difference to you personally.

Bribie Island Satellite Hospital update

It’s very exciting to see the Bribie Island Satellite Hospital reaching the last stages of construction, and when it is operational later this year, it will be a great health resource for the close-knit community of Bribie Island.

It will be fantastic for the community to have access to specialised services such as the Day Medical Treatment Unit (which provides outpatient services for patients who need infusion therapies such immunoglobin or monoclonal antibodies), a Kidney Dialysis Unit and a six-chair Cancer Care Unit.

The Minor Injury and Illness Clinic (right), Day Medical and Haemodialysis Unit and the Aboriginal and Torre Strait Islander Health Hub, are really taking shape and works are almost complete in these areas.

An onsite Oral Health van and the new HAART Service which provides rehabilitation services to support healthy aging will also be provided.

Recruitment for a range of medical, nursing, clinical,  administration and operational positions (like security and patient support services) will start shortly.

Meanwhile, people interested in a position can complete an Expression of Interest now by visiting https://smartjobs.qld.gov.au/jobs/QLD-547390.

Health Equity Workshop

The Metro North Health Equity Strategy 2022-2025 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 Metro North Health Equity Strategy 2022-2025 provides this pathway for cultural change and consists of five priority areas for inclusion in our local strategy:

1. Actively eliminate racial discrimination and institutional racism within the service.
2. Increasing access to healthcare services.
3. Delivering sustainable, culturally safe and responsive healthcare services.
4. Influencing the social, cultural and economic determinants of health.
5. Working with First Nations peoples, communities and organisations to design, deliver,
   monitor and review health services.

The Strategy is supported by the  Metro North Health Equity Implementation and Evaluation Plan 2022–2025 was developed in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders, community stakeholders, our Executive team within Metro North and external partner organisations

This week (on Tuesday) we had our second CKW Equity Workshop. It was fantastic to see 50 of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island staff, clinicians and executive attend and work proactively together to focus on advancing the development of our CKW Health Equity Implementation Plan, which we must have completed by the end of March.

It was an important opportunity for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and senior leaders to collaborate and drive meaningful progress towards achieving Health Equity. If you would like to be more involved than you currently are in this work, please contact Tracy or I so we can ensure we link you in.

Thank you to Metro North Health Equity Program Manager Layla Scott and CKW Manager
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Tracy Grant for organising the event.

Cultural Support After Hours expansion trial

The CKW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Services – Indigenous Hospital Liaison Officer and Senior Health Workers will be trialling and expanding our Cultural Support After Hours service on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for the month of March.  Shaniqua already covers Mondays, and Fridays for these later hours and also over weekend.

The trial started on commenced on Tuesday and runs until Friday 29 March. The team will collect feedback from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and families to determine the feasibility of this continuing on a more permanent basis.

Congratulations to Tracy and the CKW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Services team for this great initiative. I’m very interested to hear the outcomes and how this works for our teams.

Farewell Zaheer!

Earlier this week, we said farewell to Medicine and Older Persons Clinical Director Dr Zaheer Bhikoo who is leaving Caboolture Hospital this week.

I was so pleased to hear that many of his colleagues and friends were able to attend his farewell event and reflect on Dr Bhikoo’s leadership and unwavering advocacy for the patient.

We will certainly miss him! Dr Emma Donaldson (left) has stepped into the role for a few months while a formal recruitment process is undertaken.

Recent appointments

Congratulations to Yvette Greig who has been permanently appointed to the role of Nurse Manager for the Caboolture Hospital Equipment Services (CHES). Yvette joins us from COH where she has been working as a Nurse Educator.

Yvette is already well known to many staff at Caboolture Hospital, having recently been working with the Caboolture Hospital Redevelopment Project as Nurse/Midwife Educator, equipment and vendor coordinator.

Welcome back Yvette who is joined by three wonderful AINs – Samantha, Richard and John. I’m glad we now have a permanent presence in CHES.

CKW Research success!

I was delighted to hear that Caboolture Hospital RADAR Clinical Director Dr Elizabeth (EJ) Marsden has received an Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) grant to evaluate the Residential Aged care District Assessment and Referral (RADAR) Rapid Response model.

Supported by an EMF grant in 2018, Dr Marsden evaluated the implementation of the GEDI model of service delivery into two regional emergency departments.

Now a successful model that has been rolled out statewide, GEDI also provided a research platform from which the Residential Aged care District Assessment and Referral Rapid Response (RADAR RR) model has been developed.

Dr Marsden was successful in obtaining an EMF grant in Round 40 of more than $80,000 to evaluate the clinical and economic outcomes of the RADAR RR model.

The formal grants ceremony was held at Victoria Park Golf Course this week with Dr Marsden as keynote speaker.

Such a wonderful opportunity to showcase the great clinical work at Caboolture Hospital!

CKW has a wonderful research culture that continues to grow under Acting Director Dr Thuy Frakking (right) and the Research Development Unit, based at our Riverside office.

The RDU can help you work out whether a project could be framed as research or a quality improvement and from there advise on and help with study design, steps to progress ethics, how to partner with universities and can link staff to other Metro North research support (eg. statisticians, ethics information clinics, health economics).

The team is also available to chat to anyone considering a research higher degree (Masters or PhD) and help link students with potential supervisors.

If you have an interest in research but don’t quite know how to get involved the team would love to hear from you.

In further good news, we’ll have several more CKW success stories in the Metro North Research Snapshot publication which is due to be released in May.

For more information, email RDU_Caboolture@health.qld.gov.au

What a success! Caboolture Satellite Hospital celebrates 200 days of compassionate care

Recently, the Caboolture Satellite Hospital team celebrated 200 days providing compassionate care to the Caboolture community. The team have done a great job, each and one of those 200 days (in fact 211 days today)!

During that time, the Minor Injury and Illness Centre has managed 11,695 patient presentations which is an average of 56 patients per day, with regular days of seeing 70 patients. A big thank-you to a small team that really works hard every day for our community.

I see many compliments from the community about the care they receive at the satellite hospital, such as this review recently from a local Mum:

“I recently had cause to take my 12-year-old daughter to Caboolture Satellite Hospital for an adverse allergic reaction. The staff were fabulous and really looked after her.

“We were in and out within 20 minutes, whereas had we gone to the ED we would have probably waited hours. They were very friendly and were quick to offer medication and a prescription.

“I would definitely recommend the satellite hospital as a quicker and professional alternative to the ED for minor injuries and illness.”

Construction starts on youth detention facility at Woodford

Construction started this week on a new 80-bed youth detention centre at Woodford, near the current adult facility. It is expected to be complete by 2026.

Metro North Health will work with youth justice teams to provide health care to young people at the new facility. I’m working with Paul Kemp to explore our role but I expect our Allied Health team will have an important role.

If you’re interested to learn more, visit the dedicated web page.

Food Services Team Listening Post!

Food Services Team! I want to hear from you!

New Allied Health Director Anne Padayachee, People and Culture Manager Judy Gentle and I are particularly keen to meet with the food services staff.

We want to hear from all the staff who work in food services team about what’s working well? What’s not working?

What we need to start doing? Stop doing?

Staff have sat with Anne and Judy in person in the tearoom to provide their thoughts during the week.

If you are still keen to participate, find us sitting in the Wellness Centre during the week (around staff break times) if you want to chat.

You can also fill out a feedback sheet and pop it into the sealed box (pictured here with Judy).

Domestic and Family Violence Virtual Training

Domestic and Family Violence is a community issue and everybody’s business.  We likely all know or have known someone affected by or have personably been affected by Domestic and Family Violence.

For us in health we have a responsibility to recognise, respond and refer, Metro North Hospital and Health Service employs Domestic and Family Violence Workforce Specialists to provide training and professional development opportunities.

Enrol in an engaging and informative session which you can access virtually. They are open to all Metro North Health employees.

Courses available during March and April:

• Monday 25 March | 12pm-1.30pm | DFV Tenancy and DFV Tenancy Toolkit
• Tuesday 26 March | 12pm-1.30pm | Financial and Economic Abuse
• Tuesday 9 April | 1pm-2.30pm | Victims Assist Queensland
• Thursday 11 April | 12pm-3.30pm | Common Risks and Safety Framework
• Tuesday 30 April | 9.30am-1pm | Common Risks and Safety Framework

To register, complete the online registration form and  (which will generate a calendar invite). Access to a microphone and camera is mandatory.

For more details, contact Jelena Senic via email or phone 3646 3363.

• If you are experiencing Domestic and Family Violence and would like community-based specialist supports, contact 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732).
• If you are experiencing Domestic and Family Violence and seeking staff wellbeing supports, contact TELUS Health 24/7 DFV Line (1300 574 516).

Reflection of the week:

Firstly, my congratulations to proud parents Kelley and Roy who welcomed a ‘leap year baby’ at Caboolture Hospital yesterday afternoon. Last I heard, they were still deciding on a name.

We had a few ‘leap year babies’ born yesterday – my congratulations and best wishes to all the families.

This week has been a little challenging for me as I shake off a lurgy! I am terrible at being unwell and even worse at being restricted to my home… it gives me a great appreciation for the frustration and distress we see and hear from our patients at times.

It has, however, shown how we can all pivot and flex, as I have had the opportunity to engage and observe via electronic technology and support from a distance as we (the CKW team) have efficiently worked through a very challenging week:

• pulling together to care for our patients,
• coming together to plan how we will make our services more accessible and equitable for our community and;
• joining together to celebrate members of our team together.

As we continue to see and manage high patient presentations who need our care, please continue to care for yourself so that you can give your best to your colleagues and patients.

Remain kind and compassionate to all, even under pressure or when they are responding to pressure, as we never know what is going on for others. Looking after people is far better than being the person needing care, feeling ill and vulnerable.

Thank you to you all!