Louise Oriti, Executive Director, Redcliffe Hospital

It’s great when a plan comes together, and last Saturday in the ICU, we saw exactly that.

The plan was for the ICU to relocate their patients into the DPU on Saturday morning to allow some works to be done in the ICU space.

The execution required support and collaboration from a range of hospital teams, including BEMS and Engineering, DPU staff, and operational teams.

The result saw the works completed safely and patients comfortably back in the ICU two hours ahead of schedule.

It was another shining example of what can be achieved through good planning and strong collaboration. It’s proof again that we are stronger when we work together.

Volunteers Christmas Lunch

Last Friday, we held one of my favourite hospital events, our Volunteers Christmas Lunch. It’s an important event and one of the ways we say thank you to show our appreciation to our hospital’s volunteer community.

As always, our kitchen team put together a fabulous lunch, served up by our Facility Services team and many of our hospital’s senior leaders.

Our COVID response has been particularly hard on our volunteering community, and we’re grateful to those who have remained with us throughout those challenging times.

Our hospital’s volunteer community includes our Redcliffe Hospital Volunteers, who wear red shirts and assist patients in places like the outpatients waiting area and at the hospital’s front desk. That volunteer community also includes our Redcliffe Hospital Auxiliary members, who usually wear blue shirts, run the hospital’s gift shop, and raise money for hospital projects that benefit patients. We’re also grateful to have volunteer chaplains like Ian Fraser OAM, who ran our Remembrance Day Service last month, and our Justice of the Peace volunteers, who are available at the hospital Monday to Thursday.

Our volunteers will be standing down for the year from Monday19 December for a well-deserved break, but they’ll be back with us from the second week of January.

Thank you for Giving Day

We held a special celebration with Raise it for Redcliffe on Tuesday to celebrate hospital staff and teams who went out of their way to help others and made Redcliffe Hospital Giving Day a success again this year.

Among the many teams and people recognised at the celebration were:

• REDDY Fun & Fitness
• Jacqui Nix
• Elwyn Henaway
• Bradley Anderson
• Facility Services
• Jacob Reed
• Our finance team
• Lesley Webb, and
• Louise Joce and the Medicine Service Line.

More than $224,000 was raised by this year’s Giving Day, thanks to the strong support of our community and hospital staff.

Smoking Ceremony

Our Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group has done a wonderful job this year, arranging Yarning Circles and events that have brought us closer together with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Everyone is now invited to a Smoking Ceremony in the Healing Garden from 10am on Thursday, 15 December, to hear more about our Health Equity journey and what the RAP Working Group has planned for 2023. Please join us and stay for the morning tea afterwards.

On a personal note from me

Now that December is here, our Christmas decoration competition has officially started. This year’s theme is Summer Christmas, it’s going to be hot! When putting up those decorations, please keep infection prevention rules in mind, and follow those important fire and electrical safety guidelines.

The Christmas decoration competition is something of a tradition for many wards. For me, the best thing about the decoration competition is how it makes the hospital environment brighter for patients and their families. This is especially important for patients over the Christmas week when home and family are never more important.

Thank you to everyone who is helping make our hospital a happier one this Christmas. We do better work when we care for ourselves and each other. #IamRedcliffe.

Louise Oriti
Executive Director
Redcliffe Hospital