Next Thursday, 8 September, is R U OK? Day. There are currently 1325 Staff across Metro North skilled in having an R U OK? Conversation. Our Metro North R U OKers are kind to others, value meaningful relationships and contribute to creating an organisation where we all feel connected and supported.

During the month of September, I encourage you to make time to think about your welfare and wellbeing: start to huddle with your teams daily just to check in; launch a culture of support within your work team; find out who your peer supporters are in your workplace.

Innovation

Over the last almost three years Metro North has grown into a more networked health service. We have shared resources, shared demand and built on reform and innovation to enable us to respond to whatever is happening in our community. We are in my view the biggest and the best health service but we need to continue as a healthcare community to help each other, share our good ideas, our wisdom and what is working well, distribute our resources and patients to the best of our ability to minimise inequality.

Metro North Health was successful in receiving funding for a number of Connecting Community Pathway initiatives, which I’ll showcase over the next few weeks.

One initiative is the establishment of a Behavioural Emergency Response Team (BERT) which will be an assertive multidisciplinary outreach and crisis response team. BERT will work with care providers to support people with a disability with complex and challenging behaviours to avoid unnecessary emergency department presentations and lengthy hospital admissions. BERT will work in partnership with the National Disability Insurance Agency, NDIS providers, primary care sector, and other emergency services to develop early intervention care pathways.

RADAR

The RADAR Rapid Response QAS Co-Responder model has been successfully implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently the Rapid Response team are managing, on average, 40 cases per week with 75% ED avoidance despite COVID-19 staffing impacts.

Recently RADAR provided a COVID-19 outbreak response team to assist Blackhall Hospital and the local residential aged care facility in Central West Queensland. This provided an opportunity for collaboration between local General Practitioners, hospital staff, Metro North Virtual Ward, RADAR and aged care staff.

Queensland Health Reform

As you’re aware, Queensland Health is undergoing a significant reform process to future-proof the health system. This is a large body of work happening in partnership with all HHSs, QAS, and health sector partners and consumers, led by the Queensland Health Reform Office.

One of the major outcomes of this work will be a 10-year strategy that acknowledges the excellent and valuable work already being delivered across the system, and harnesses opportunities to reshape the way we as a whole system do some things. It will outline improvements to clinical service, data, ICT, policy, funding, workforce, partnerships, health literacy and leadership, to ensure our health system is well equipped, equitable and resourced to meet and sustain the projected healthcare demand.

This piece of work may not have a direct impact on your area right now, but I want you to know how Metro North is listening and directly contributing to the current discussions.

Recently, members from our executive and leaderships teams, clinicians, Clinical Services, and Strategy and Planning team spent some time with senior leaders from across the Department to better understand the scope and extent of the work, how we can add value, and influence the decisions that will be made.

It was a valuable opportunity for our team to showcase:

• our virtual ED model, implemented during COVID, and its ongoing success in diverting potential ED presentations to alternate care, and
• the RADAR Rapid Response model to assist residential aged care facilities to treat residents in their home and avoid transfer to hospital where clinically safe.

We were also able to express our concerns around:

• partnerships and the integration of models of care with the PHN, and
• data and information sharing between internal and external services.

As engagement and planning continues there will be more opportunities for us to partner in these ongoing conversations before any final plans are made.

Earlier this year, there was a statewide callout for any staff interested in being involved in informing this body of work. More than 600 people from across Queensland Health, including 112 people from Metro North, expressed interest. Details about the engagement activities will be available soon.

I will provide more updates as the reform process continues, but if you have an idea or an experience you would like to share please contact the Queensland Health reform planning team.

If you missed the recent Department of Health broadcast highlighting the success of our Virtual ED, you can watch the video.

Sustainable and effective change takes time, but it’s important that we all take the opportunities to engage with the reform process when possible to ensure we continue to deliver excellent high quality care for our Metro North community.

Working for Qld survey

The annual Working for Queensland survey will start next week. The survey will run from 5-30 September and includes questions about your day to day experience as a Queensland public sector employee. This year’s survey has additional questions about your health and wellbeing, health equity and diversity. The survey link will be distributed on Monday.

Congratulations

There was a lovely story in the media this week about one of our Community and Oral Health, Bethany Arbuckle, heading off soon to volunteer in Africa. Bethany is a nurse at Brighton Health Campus and has been chosen to take part in the Nurses in Action volunteer program with World Youth International and will be going to Kenya in November. Congratulations, Bethany.

Thank you all and enjoy your weekend.

Warm regards,

Jackie