Staff News
Chief Executive
Staff News
Chief Executive
- 23 May 2025|The Metro North Have Your Say staff survey closes next Friday 30 May and as at 9am today, 19% of our workforce have responded to the survey.
- 16 May 2025|The Have Your Say (HYS) staff survey kicked off this week and I’m pleased that 9% of our Metro North workforce have already completed the survey. Thank you. With two more weeks to go, I strongly encourage all of you to give your feedback.
- 12 May 2028|Today, the fourth Metro North Have Your Say staff survey opens, and this is your chance to shape the future of Metro North and our culture. You have three weeks to take part in the survey with a closing date of 30 May.
- 9 May 2025|In Metro North, one of our key priorities is to provide a safe and supportive environment for our people which includes staff, patients and visitors.
- 25 April 2025|Today we commemorate Anzac Day, honouring those who served our country and those who still serve in the protection of our nation.
- 23 April 2025|I hope that many of you had the opportunity to enjoy some well-deserved rest and relaxation over the Easter long weekend, however you chose to spend it. To those staff who worked and continued to provide valuable support to our community, thank you for your care and commitment.
- 17 April 2025|As we head into the Easter long weekend, I would like to extend my thanks to all staff across the health service for your care and commitment to the health of our patients and consumers.
- 11 April 2025|In health care, we have the privilege of supporting people at some of the most vulnerable times in their lives. Compassion plays a key role in determining whether people feel safe and respected under our care during these times, and how they experience and judge their journey with us.
- 04 April 2025|In Metro North, we value diversity and the strength it brings to our organisation. As Australia’s largest health service, we care for and support an extraordinarily diverse population, which means we need to be dynamic, sensitive and appropriate in how we deliver services to patients and consumers and in how we support our workforce.
- 28 March 2025|As Australia’s largest health service, Metro North supports apopulation of more than one million people, a number which isset to grow significantly over the next decade. When we look atthese numbers, we should remember that these representpeople in our community, and we have a responsibility toprovide safe, high-quality and responsive health services tothese people now and into the future.
- 21 March 2025|Today is National Close the Gap Day, a day where we reaffirm our commitment to achieving health equity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
- 20 March 2025|Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Harmony Day) which recognises diversity and brings together Australians from all different backgrounds. As Australia’s largest and most diverse public hospital and health service, it’s important we celebrate the great diversity of our people and community.
- 14 March 2025|There are currently some vacancies across some of the Metro North SET functions, so it is timely that I ensure the leadership functions as they exist are fit to take Metro North forward at its best.
- 5 March 2025|As we prepare for Tropical Cyclone Alfred which is expected to cross the coast late tomorrow/early Friday, I would like to thank everyone for their work in continuing to provide essential care to our community.
- 28 February 2025|Next week is the final week of consultation around the Metro North Strategic Plan 2024-28. I would like to extend my appreciation to those staff who took the time to attend these sessions and provide feedback over the last few weeks. Overall, we’ve had a good level of interest from staff from a range of streams and disciplines across the health service which was very positive. Pleasingly, we also obtained feedback from approximately 50 consumers.
- 21 February 2025|As Australia’s largest health service, our ability to effectively plan for the future is key to how we respond to the changing needs of our health care community.
- 14 February 2025 |It’s been great having the opportunity to speak with staff across the health service during our Strategic Plan staff pop up sessions in recent weeks. Staff have been very willing to share their ideas and feedback with myself and other members of the Senior Executive Team which we appreciate.
- 13 February 2025|Today marks the anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations.
- 7 February 2025|We’ve commenced our consultation sessions with staff around the Metro North Strategic Plan 2024-28. This has given me the opportunity to speak with staff about what’s important to them and what they would like to see happening within Metro North moving forward.
- 31 January 2025|With January almost gone, we are now all getting back into our usual busy pace of working in Metro North. I acknowledge that all services are ramping their activity back up with more patients and visitors returning to our facilities for care. As Australia’s largest health service, we have an obligation to consistently deliver the best possible care to our patients, and I thank everyone for their shared commitment to this objective.
- 24 January 2025|Yesterday Metro North hosted its first pop-up consultation session at Herston for staff to provide feedback on the Metro North Strategic Plan 2024-2028. The Strategic Plan is the overarching guiding document for our current and future decision making. It outlines our five key strategic focus areas: Service excellence; A great place to work; Advance equity; System of care; and Innovation and research.
- 17 January 2025|With the start of the new year, I am pleased to welcome many new faces to Metro North, with over 400 new staff, including medical interns, nursing and allied health graduates, as well as non-clinical staff, having commenced so far, and more to start with us in the coming weeks and months.
- 10 January 2025|At Metro North, we acknowledge that people are our most valuable asset. We recognise that for staff to successfully perform the business of Metro North, which is to care for patients, we must first and foremost, take care of our staff.
- 3 January 2025|Happy new year! I hope you have had the opportunity in the last fortnight to spend some time with loved ones and recharge for 2025. For those sta who have worked through the festive season, thank you for your commitment and for supporting your colleagues to take time off.
- 27 December 2024|It is with sadness that I advise that our Chief Finance and Corporate Ocer, Alister Whitta, will be departing Metro North Health on 6 February 2025. Alister has recently accepted an executive role in the higher education sector.
- 20 December 2024|This is our final message of the year and we wanted to sincerely thank you for all of your great work and commitment.
- 13 December 2025|With Christmas almost here, many of us are looking forward to taking a well-earned break to spend some quality time with family and friends. For most of us, the festive season is something we welcome as it represents relaxation and recreation with the people we care about most. For others however, the festive season is not necessarily a happy time as it can be a reminder of life’s pressures whether that be personal, domestic or financial.
- 06 December 2024|One of the highlights of this week was Metro North’s first-ever celebration of International Day of People with Disability. The event provided a great opportunity to reflect on diversity and inclusion in our organisation as well as network with community organisations and peak bodies from the across the disability sector.
- 22 November 2024|Tonight we are hosting our annual Metro North Staff Excellence Awards at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. This is an opportunity to come together and recognise those staff members and teams across our health service who make a significant contribution and demonstrate a strong commitment to our values.
- 15 November 2024|Monday 11 November was Remembrance Day when we honour those who gave their lives in the line of service. This day holds great significance for us here at Metro North, as we have many staff who actively served and still serve in the protection of our country.
- 8 November 2024|I am pleased to share with you the list of finalists for our 10th annual Metro North Staff Excellence Awards. This year we received a record number of nominations, spanning all our facilities and many different roles. I was happy to read so many nominations about our staff achieving great things.
- 1 November 2024|Feeling valued and cared for makes a big difference in both your working day and our patient outcomes. When kindness is part of our work, everyone benefits. I’m pleased to announce we will soon be delivering a series of workshops and events to encourage kindness in action.
- 25 October 2024|Sunday is World Occupational Therapy Day, and while we know our valued network of OTs are celebrated by patients every day, I’d like to acknowledge their important role in our health service.
- 21 October 2024|It’s been a year since the 2023 Have Your Say survey results were released across Metro North Health, and as outlined in the Employee Engagement Action plan 2023-25, a lot of work is underway to address the areas where improvement is needed.
- 18 October 2024 |With so many talented staff working across our hospital and health service, I would like to take this opportunity to remind you the Metro North Staff Excellence Awards nominations will close on Monday 21 October at 7:00pm.
- 11 October 2024|This week is Queensland Mental Health Week, highlighting individual and community mental health needs in our State. As one of the largest providers of public mental health services in Queensland, we are proud of our committed mental health workforce.
- 4 October 2024|Summer is approaching and that means it is almost disaster season, where we see an increase in bushfires, floods, heatwaves and smoky conditions from backburning.
- 27 September 2024|Do you feel happy at work? I hope you do, but if you need some inspiration to find the extra bit of joy in each day, our Community and Oral Health Directorate might have the answer!
- 12 September 2024|Today is R U OK? Day, a day to inspire and empower everyone to meaningfully connect with the people around them. The day follows World Suicide Prevention Day, held earlier this week. Both days encourage action to check in on those around you.
- 6 September 2024|This week has been a key week for our researchers across Metro North Health, where we have seen various events take place to showcase the work of our clinical academics, innovators and PHD students culminating in the Metro North Research Excellence Awards last night.
- 30 August 2024|What defines excellence? Here at Metro North, we recognise excellence in all our clinical, nonclinical and operational staff across a range of categories each year as part of our Staff Excellence Awards. The awards celebrate our staff who make a significant contribution and demonstrate a strong commitment to our values, either as individuals or a team.
- 23 August 2024|While the weather is warming up and we say goodbye to the last few days of winter, we still need to be mindful of respiratory illness in the community and the impact this has on our hospitals.
- 16 August 2024 |This week I’d like to recognise the work of all our staff who work in the mental health space and our Protective Services Officers.
- 9 August 2024|Did you know that in the 3.8 million instances of care provided in the last financial year, 416,000 of these patients spoke a language other than English?
- 02 August 2024|I am pleased to start my message this week with our finalists in the 2024 Research Excellence Awards.
- 26 July 2024|Earlier this week we briefed Caboolture Hospital staff on the findings and recommendations of the independent review into paediatric services.
- 19 July 2024|This week Bribie Island Satellite Hospital commenced operations. Great work by the team to get everything ready for the first day of operations. Metro North now has three Satellite Hospitals in our northern region, providing care 7 days a week.
- 12 July 2024|On Monday we launched Focus on the First Quarter, our Metro North Year of Children, Adolescents and Young Adult. There were around 90 attendees with good representation from our directorates.
- 8 July 2024|This week is NAIDOC Week (7- 14 July 2024), an important opportunity to celebrate and recognise the history, culture, and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
- 5 July 2024|Every winter we see an increase in demand across all of our services. It’s a very busy time and I am very aware that many of you are working long days and nights to ensure every patient gets the right care in the right place.
- 28 June 2024|We are still seeing a sustained increase in demand. Thank you for everything you are doing to support timely patient care. We have activated some of our private hospital contracts and some lower acuity patients are in those beds.
- 21 June 2024|It has been another very busy week across Metro North with continued strong demand. I want to thank you all for your work and for doing everything you can to keep patient flow moving.