What a week! As COVID-19 increases within our community, we are faced with many new challenges on a daily basis with regard to our work and our health. As health care workers, our duty is to take care of others, but in the same vein, to do this, we need to take care of ourselves. This is more important now than ever.

Working in health care for many years, and also recently having had my own personal health scare, brings home the importance of needing to show compassion to ourselves and others. There is no doubt this can be difficult in a busy hospital environment where we faced with increasing demands on our services and staff. But the more we can apply kindness and compassion in our everyday work situations, the better off we will be.

Sometimes this requires taking a moment to step back and get some perspective on what we are doing, to remind ourselves that what we do matters, and that we all have a role to play. And importantly, no one can go it alone during these times. So don’t be afraid or embarrassed to reach out if you need support – we are all in this together and there are many supports available.

New Staff Psychology Open Door sessions

TPCH Staff Psychology Service, in collaboration with Metro North’s Culture and Wellbeing team is launching a new group support program for staff. The Staff Psychology Open Door is a virtual session available to all TPCH staff every Thursday 2.30pm – 3.15pm with the first session commencing Thursday 20 January. The purpose is to provide a space for staff to talk through their feelings and experiences, as well as explore strategies to support with coping with the current COVID-19 situation. The session will be offered via Teams with the meeting link to be provided on Monday.

For the Staff Psychology hotline please call 3647 9673 or email: MNStaffPsychology@health.qld.gov.au

Other wellbeing services available are:

• Peer Responder
• Benestar
• Staff Psychology

Flexible work support

With the current demands on our services, we are receiving an increasing number of requests for staff to undertake flexible working arrangements, as well look at opportunities for redeployment. To help streamline these requests, we are currently establishing a new process to centralise and manage them. Details will be provided shortly.

Switchboard support

Due to the large volume of calls being received by our Switchboard operators, staff are asked to do the following to assist the team:

• Please use the desktop Directory to find out phone numbers rather than calling Switch.  If the Desktop Directory isn’t on your desktop, please call Information Services on 1800 198 175 and ask to have it installed
• If you need to return faulty equipment to Switch, please leave it on the spare admissions desk outside the Switchboard office where it will be attended to. There is no need to enter the Switchboard office to return equipment.

Employee options for leave due to COVID-19Leave options for employees with COVID-19 infection

COVID-19 Support Hotline

Weekend reminder – Fever Clinics / COVID Testing service

Public Fever Clinic – 8.30am to 4pm, 7 days

Staff Only Testing Clinic – 7am to 2pm, 7 days.

Other Staff Testing Clinics 
Metro North is also offering a number of staff only testing clinics

• RBWH Education Centre, Monday to Friday, 9am to 4.15pm
• Caboolture Hospital staff carpark, Monday to Sunday, 7.30am to 5pm

A positive note

This week, I received a lovely message of appreciation from one of our staff members about our Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) which I would like to share with you as we head into the weekend.

“Just want to say Thank You and God Bless to each and every one of you in EOC. All of you are heroes and I’m so proud to have come in contact with you all.

Thank you so much for all the support services, updates you provide us with. Some of us might forget to say this, but thank you for being there always. When someone asks me to think of a person who carries all their heart and love on their sleeves, I can and I must say I can speak for a few of us, it’s you guys. Thank you so much for everything! Words are falling short for me today. Stay safe, and do not forget to take care of yourself while taking care of us.

Thank you for your time, energy and efforts to make the rest of us feel safe and protected. Your actions and efforts are appreciated. Again THANK YOU!! A thousand times over for what you are doing for all of us. I am so grateful. Please stay safe.

And on that note, have a good and safe weekend, no matter where you are.

Tami Photinos
Executive Director