Adj Assoc Prof Jackie Hanson, Chief Executive, Metro North Health

I’m pleased to see this week we have continued to see a slight decrease in demand. We are almost at the end of Winter and as the respiratory impacts start to decline, Metro North Executive team are currently discussing ways of showing our appreciation over the month of September for our hard working staff.

The Minister for Health and Ambulance Services Hon Yvette D’Ath has written to Metro North this week expressing her appreciation of the work of staff across Metro North, particularly your professionalism and care. This week I received a letter from the Health Minister directly as a result of some positive feedback she’s received from a woman whose husband was cared for by RBWH, TPCH and our Hospital in the Home program. The Minister said the couple were very appreciative of the care and support received and asked me to also pass on a broader thank you to all staff.

White Ribbon workplace accreditation

Metro North has recommenced our work towards White Ribbon workplace accreditation. You may remember we started the journey in 2019 and were working towards making our health service a certified place that demonstrates a culture of zero tolerance against family and domestic violence.  As part of this process, some of you may have completed the White Ribbon survey which helped inform how we support staff who experience domestic and family violence.

Unfortunately, the process of becoming accredited was unexpectedly halted due to some administrative issues with the White Ribbon organisation. However, I am pleased to say that these issues have been resolved and we are once again working towards becoming accredited later this year.

Becoming a White Ribbon accredited workplace is more important now than ever, particularly with the notable increase in home related violence and abuse which was reported through the height of the pandemic. This means recognising that everyone has a responsibility to oppose attitudes and behaviours that go against our values, promote a respectful workplace, and provide support to those whose lives are affected by domestic and family violence.

As part of our mandatory training, all staff are required to complete the  Recognise, Respond, Refer domestic and family violence training via TMS. This training also contributes to our White Ribbon accreditation. With our accreditation timelines being quite short, I ask that staff complete this training by Sunday 18 September 2022.

Completing this training will not only help us earn our White Ribbon accreditation; it will give staff the tools and knowledge to help stand up and support colleagues who may be experiencing violence. More information can be found on Metro North’s domestic and family violence intranet site.

Taskforce 10

Our Taskforce 10 has had a busy year. Taskforce 10’s initial challenge was to save $10million in the 21-22 Financial Year and we are now assessing and reviewing the format.

Some of the key achievements of Taskforce 10 include partnering with Digital Metro North, Green Metro North, executives and facility teams on projects such:

• Make the Switch campaign,
• Energy efficiency and waste reduction,
• Dashboards to educate about and reduce unnecessary ICT costs,
• Consumables dashboard to help surgical teams make equipment choices,
• Implementation of templated blood form rolled out to reduce the request of unnecessary tests
• Transition from disposable cuffs to reusable cuffs in Theatres & Endoscopy RBWH
• Shared Mailbox rationalisation (in response to price increase of Microsoft Suite)
• Taskforce 10’s Top 10 for Operational Planning
• Influencing change around product substitutes, pathology test rationalisation, paperless strategies, and write-off improvements for Medicare ineligible patients.

I’d like to thank co-leads Katrina Campbell and Dr Jeff Rowland and everyone who has been part of this voluntary committee for your work to make change across the organisation.

Vidcasts

Today Kate Copeland and I delivered another vidcast in our series on future capital works and infrastructure investment. We focused this one on the $1.06 billion upgrade for Redcliffe Hospital. On Tuesday we will provide an update on infrastructure plans for TPCH. The vidcast recordings are available on QHEPS for those who can’t tune in live.

Mark Butterworth and I also held a vidcast on diversity this week and had some great interaction with staff about multicultural and diversity topics. Thanks for the discussion and great ideas.

If you have the chance to have the weekend off, please enjoy. If you are working, I hope your weekend goes well.

Warm regards,

Jackie