{"id":1701,"date":"2020-03-27T17:19:59","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T07:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/extranet\/?p=1701"},"modified":"2020-04-24T11:16:53","modified_gmt":"2020-04-24T01:16:53","slug":"20200327","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/extranet\/covid-ce\/20200327","title":{"rendered":"27 March 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Message<\/span><\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

27 March 2020 \u2013 COVID-19 (coronavirus)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Colleagues,<\/p>\n

Our COVID-19 response continues to rapidly evolve. I want to give you an update on what we\u2019re doing to prepare.<\/p>\n

Creating capacity<\/strong><\/p>\n

As part of the coordinated surge planning for COVID-19, all elective surgeries except category 1 and urgent category 2 have been cancelled.<\/p>\n

This is in line with announcements from Queensland Health and the Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

These changes will help increase our capacity for emergency care and limit non-essential physical contact which is critical in helping us manage the risk to both patients and staff.<\/p>\n

Patients will be referred back to the care of their GP who will escalate any urgent care through a Queensland Health virtual clinical escalation centre.<\/p>\n

Additionally, late last week we stopped accepting new non-urgent outpatient referrals and have started rescheduling or converting existing appointments to telehealth or phone consultations.<\/p>\n

In the past two weeks we have been reviewing and restructuring our services. We started the week with an additional 115 inpatient beds available to flex up for our COVID-19 response. By the end of next week we will have more than 270 inpatient beds available.<\/p>\n

Across our intensive care units we are expanding our usual capacity of 49 beds and will have 93 beds capacity within the next two weeks to treat critically ill patients. Currently our ICUs have 60 beds available.<\/p>\n

This is on top of our community beds in our COVID-19 virtual ward. This week we are expanding our virtual bed capacity to 800, which is expected to double in the next two weeks to 1600. These beds will be used for patients with mild symptoms who can be treated in their own homes under nursing and medical supervision. We have also expanded our community home based care to accommodate an additional 80 patients.<\/p>\n

Additionally, we are working on ensuring there is adequate PPE for those who need it and I\u2019ll updated you next week in detail.<\/p>\n

Communicating with you<\/strong><\/p>\n

Keeping you informed of the latest updates is vital to ensuring we are all prepared and ready to deal with this changing health landscape. Each week there will be a series of messages and opportunities to engage via video with myself and representatives from Infection Control, Infectious Diseases and HR so you can get the information you need and ask questions of experts.<\/p>\n

We have also created a weekly COVID-19 staff update<\/a> while our regular monthly newsletters are on hold.<\/p>\n

Our planned communication schedule for the next two weeks looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Monday 30 March<\/td>\n\n
    \n
  • Weekly \u2018match report\u2019 CE message<\/li>\n
  • Vidcast with Shaun Drummond and Jackie Hanson, 2.30-3pm<\/li>\n
  • Daily message from Dr Liz Rushbrook, Health Incident Controller<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tuesday 31 March<\/td>\n\n
    \n
  • \u00a0Vidcast with Infection Control nurse Janice Geary, 1-2pm<\/li>\n
  • Metro North consumer session with Shaun Drummond, Colleen Jen, John Piispanen and Alex Chaudhuri, 2.15-3pm<\/li>\n
  • Daily message from Dr Liz Rushbrook, Health Incident Controller<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wednesday 1 April<\/td>\n\n
    \n
  • Weekly message from Jackie Hanson<\/li>\n
  • Vidcast with Infectious Diseases Dr Alex Chaudhuri, 2.30-3.30pm<\/li>\n
  • Daily message from Dr Liz Rushbrook, Health Incident Controller<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Thursday 2 April<\/td>\n\n
    \n
  • Vidcast with ED HR Sarah Bench, 12.30-1.30pm<\/li>\n
  • Daily message from Dr Liz Rushbrook, Health Incident Controller<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Friday 3 April<\/td>\n\n
    \n
  • Weekly CE update message<\/li>\n
  • Weekly COVID-19 staff newsletter<\/li>\n
  • Vidcast with Shaun Drummond<\/li>\n
  • Daily message from Dr Liz Rushbrook, Health Incident Controller<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Saturday 4 April<\/td>\n\n
    \n
  • Daily message from Dr Liz Rushbrook, Health Incident Controller<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sunday 5 April<\/td>\n\n
    \n
  • Daily message from Dr Liz Rushbrook, Health Incident Controller<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Monday 6 April<\/td>\n\n
    \n
  • Weekly \u2018match report\u2019 CE message<\/li>\n
  • Vidcast with Shaun Drummond, 2.30-3pm<\/li>\n
  • Daily message from Dr Liz Rushbrook, Health Incident Controller<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tuesday 7 April<\/td>\n\n
    \n
  • Vidcast with Infection Control nurse<\/li>\n
  • Daily message from Dr Liz Rushbrook, Health Incident Controller<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wednesday 8 April<\/td>\n\n
    \n
  • Vidcast with Infectious Diseases doctor<\/li>\n
  • Daily message from Dr Liz Rushbrook, Health Incident Controller<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Thursday 9 April<\/td>\n\n
    \n
  • Vidcast with HR Manager Col Smyth<\/li>\n
  • Daily message from Dr Liz Rushbrook, Health Incident Controller<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Friday 10 April<\/td>\n\n
    \n
  • Weekly CE update message<\/li>\n
  • Weekly COVID-19 staff newsletter<\/li>\n
  • Vidcast with Shaun Drummond<\/li>\n
  • Daily message from Dr Liz Rushbrook, Health Incident Controller<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Saturday 11 April<\/td>\n\n
    \n
  • Daily message from Dr Liz Rushbrook, Health Incident Controller<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sunday 12 April<\/td>\n\n