This Sunday 22 January marks the beginning of Chinese New Year, also called Lunar New Year, one of the most important holidays in Chinese culture with 2023 being the Year of the Rabbit.  The Chinese New Year celebration is focused around reuniting with families and friends, removing the bad and the old, and welcoming the new and the good.  As an organisation that celebrates and embraces diversity, I would like to wish those staff at TPCH who celebrate Chinese or Lunar New Year, a happy and prosperous year ahead – gōng xǐ fā cái!

Executive Update

This week, Director of Medical Services, Dr Donna O’Sullivan and I had the opportunity to welcome our 30 new medical interns during their orientation week, joined by members of the Metro North Board, Dr Rob Franz and Bernard Curran. We thank Rob and Bernard for taking the time to meet with the interns and welcome them to the Metro North team.

Our interns also enjoyed a separate visit from state members of parliament, Jimmy Sullivan and Bart Mellish who were pleased to meet and welcome our newest staff members on board. We thank Jimmy and Bart for their ongoing support.

Earlier this week, Finance Manager, Darren Ransom; People and Culture Business Partner, Ian Janke and I visited the kitchen to support our Food Services area. We appreciate the current challenges in this space and I thank everyone for their great work, especially at this time. TPCH receives many compliments from patients about our food services, so hats off to all the staff who support the delivery of high quality food to the patients of TPCH.

For our Executive walkaround this week, Director of Operations EPIC, Karlene Willcocks and I visited some areas within our Internal Medicine Service (IMS) including Early-assessment Medical Unit (EMU), Rapid Access Medical and Surgical (RAMS), Day Unit for Investigation and Therapy (DUIT), and Ward 1F.

We spoke with IMS Medical Director, Dr Jeff Rowland and Nurse Unit Manager, Sarah Young about various planned improvements and changes for the areas including the upcoming relocation of some DUIT patients to Cancer Care Services in Building 6 from 1 February, as part a broader governance change to integrate a number of TPCH services with Cancer Care Services at RBWH. I will provide more information about this change in my message next week.

During my visit to Ward 1F, I spoke briefly with an elderly patient as she was leaving the ward to go home. Interestingly, this patient was a former nurse who had worked in Saudi Arabia during her career. She spoke very highly of the care she received during her stay in the ward, giving staff a big thumbs up. Well done to the Ward 1F team and thanks to Hayley and Sue for taking us around on the day.

Also this week, I attended the EMU Multidisciplinary Meeting, a daily meeting where staff review and discuss diagnoses and discharge issues for EMU patients and outliers throughout the hospital. A very interesting session, so thank you to the team for having me.

FAST FACTS

This week we will focus on the Executive Support Officer (ESO) team.

Did you know?

The Executive Support Officer (ESO) team consists of 10 administrative officers who support the operational function of the Executive office and provide professional support to key Director positions within TPCH Executive Leadership Team.
Collectively, the ESOs are secretariat to approximately 30 meetings and committees
The team is responsible for coordinating all documentation that enters and leaves the Executive office. This includes drafting high level correspondence such as briefing notes and ministerials for Metro North’s central correspondence hub, and processing payroll and HR forms.
The Executive office takes hundreds of calls every week, which can range from simple inquiries to confidential and sensitive matters.
Together, the team books and adjusts around 100 meetings each week due to the busy and changing schedule of the Executive Leadership Team.

Staff Profile

In acknowledgement of our new interns starting this week, we will profile intern, Callan Morgan.

Having recently completed his medical studies at the University of Queensland, Callan is excited to begin his journey at TPCH towards becoming a doctor. His decision to pursue a career in medicine was influenced by his parents, with his mother being a nurse, and his father, a dentist; so becoming a doctor seemed like a natural progression.

As an intern, Callan is looking forward to learning to become a confident, highly knowledgeable and eventually, independent practitioner who can be relied to help relieve patients from their suffering.  He values being able to look at problems from multiple angles, and anticipating pitfalls in advance, whilst making sure others around him feel well supported, especially in times of need.

Outside of work and study, Callan has a variety of interests, some of which he admits are a little ‘nerdy.’ At times, he plays a musical instrument, mostly guitar; and he also enjoys computer programming and sometimes, reading a book. Welcome to the team Callan!

Shout out

This week’s shout out goes to Discharge Coordinator, Internal Medicine Service (IMS), Madonna Corley. Madonna was the recipient of a Metro North Shout Out Award, which I would like to share with you.

Madonna works as the only discharge coordinator covering IMS, ensuring safe discharge for our patients and better outcomes. Her care and compassion reflects the MN Values in Action.

You (Madonna) are always a delight to be around. You’re incredibly reliable, caring and approachable. You add immense value to the IMS team. You’re one of a kind. TPCH is so lucky to have you as part of our nursing team.

Congratulations Madonna!

Today’s quote

“Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.”

– Margaret Mead

Tami Photinos
Executive Director