Louise O’Riordan, Acting Executive Director

Wet and cold weather this week did nothing to dampen the goodwill and spirit of our Health Equity Workshop. Initially planned for the Scarborough foreshore, hospital and community representatives met in MBICC to yarn about important questions in our Health Equity journey.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and families

Our Journey Towards Health Equity strategy

Those questions included: what culturally safe and responsive care looks like, how we can greet and welcome Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and families to our hospital, and how we can support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and families who are carers.

Many of those present shared candid stories of their experiences, including with our hospital and health service. We’re grateful for their trust and generosity as we take more steps together on our Health Equity journey.

Valuing our volunteers

Each year, during National Volunteers Week, we thank our volunteer community for their dedication to our patients and hospital. Our volunteer community includes our Redcliffe Hospital Auxiliary, volunteer chaplains, Justice of the Peace volunteers, and our Redcliffe Hospital volunteers.

In the first quarter of this year, our volunteers have given us more than 4,000 hours of service.

We are privileged to have so many volunteers who care so much about our patients and our hospital. Especially during National Volunteers Week, we say thankyou to show our appreciation.  

Have Your Say starts today!

The Have Your Say Staff Survey starts today. This is the third time Metro North Health has run this survey. If you haven’t already, soon you’ll receive an email from the survey provider, BPA, with your survey link.

Please take the time and have your say about what it’s like to work at Redcliffe and how we can make Metro North Health a truly great place to work.

Making it count – tip of the week

Correctly counting and capturing all of our clinical activity is essential in making sure we get the funding we need each year. Here’s another way to help our clinical coders make that happen:

Antibiotic Resistance?

Document in the progress notes when antibiotic resistance is present. Coders are unable to code this from pathology.

Talk to Health Information Services on 3883 7295 to learn more about why accurate records are essential.

Winter and flu

Around half of all Redcliffe Hospital staff have now been vaccinated against the flu this winter.

If you’re still to receive your vaccine, it’s not too late. The vaccination trolley will be visiting clinical areas next Monday, and a final clinic will be in the old Fever Clinic shed next Friday from 8am to Noon.

Lastly, with winter pretty much here, flu, COVID, RSV and other respiratory illnesses are having an increasing impact on our clinical workload and the hospital workforce. There’s been no change to our traffic light level, but we can all do some practical things to protect ourselves and our patients.

We continue to strongly recommend that hospital staff wear a surgical mask (or N95) in clinical areas.

Everyone should update their mandatory training, especially Infection Control Awareness and fit testing recertification.

If you’re sick, stay home. You may do more harm than good if you’re at work when you’re unwell.

Make sure you’re up to date with your COVID boosters, and if you haven’t already, get your free flu vaccination next week.

We do better work when we care for ourselves and each other.

Louise.