A very big shoutout today to our friends and colleagues at Kilcoy Hospital and Woodford Corrections Health who are cut-off due to rising floodwaters blocking the D’Aguilar Highway and several other key local roads. We have called a Code Brown related to both facilities until further notice. I would like to thank the staff who are so dedicated and kindly arranged to stay on site.

The CKW EOC has been working closely with Metro North EOC, Moreton Bay Regional Council and Moreton Bay Local Disaster Management Group and equivalents at Somerset Regional Council for a few days now to ensure that we can continue to provide care for patients despite the challenging circumstances.

Please drive to the conditions today and check the Moreton Bay Regional Council website for the list of local roads closed due to flooding. It is available here: Weather impacted roads – Moreton Bay Regional Council.

Somerset Regional Council has a webcam of Kilcoy Creek bridge and other local river crossings:
Somerset Regional Council – Flood Cameras. The new bridge into town over Kilcoy Creek is well and truly over.

Please stay safe everyone. There are now a lot of roads closed, so if you think the severe weather may impact your ability to come to work over the next few days, please speak with your line manager as soon as possible.

If you’re at Caboolture Hospital and won’t be able to make it home this afternoon due to flooded roads, the Discharge Lounge in the Education Centre is being set-up as a safe place to stay until it’s safe to go home again.

Moving to Tier 2 on Monday

We also had some great news today. Metro North Health will move to a Tier 2 Response from Monday morning (28/2). This is a great step in the right direction and a great reward for the hard work that everyone has put in over Christmas and the first few months of this year.

A move to Tier 2 is reflected more in a resumption of planned care than other items. Outpatients and theatre services will resume in a staged manner. Education and meetings should remain as much as possible in virtual format unless it is essential they be held face-to-face.

A challenge has been issued from Shaun Drummond in his new role as COO in Queensland Health to maintain some of the virtual processes that have been adopted during the pandemic. We will be working over the next few weeks to identify the best opportunities across CKW.

The Chief Health Officer sets the PPE levels across Queensland, so we will continue with high risk PPE given a moderate level of community transmission at present.

Masks will continue to be required for staff, visitors and patients in hospitals. They remain one of the best ways to stop the spread of COVID-19 and keep our patients and community safe.

Realignment

Our Organisational Realignment will be finalised on Monday. Thank you to everyone who took part in the review process and worked together to deliver this significant change.

While the unit changes will go live on Monday, workflows such as RIskman, myHR and s4/HANA may take a little while to be changed over accordingly. Well done to Judy and team for such a great job!

My door is always open….

You may have heard me say that my door is always open for staff. I’m sure all the CKW executives feel the same way.  However, someone recently pointed out to me that this wasn’t exactly the case with a heavy, self-locking door blocking access between the executive foyer and offices, including mine.

That’s why I have removed access restrictions to the door, so now everyone with a CKW swipe card can simply touch the reader and enter the executive offices during regular hours (8am and 4pm weekdays, excluding public holidays).

In due course, we’ll update the entry foyer altogether, removing the glass window and heavy door, which will make it a much more accessible and welcoming space for all.

For now, please use your swipe card to open the executive office front door to get to mine!

What a compliment!

Here’s another compliment received recently via PREMS regarding care at Caboolture Hospital:

‘Professional yet friendly. Kind and courteous. I’ve had several visits to Caboolture Hospital, nothing but praise for everyone there.’

Finally,

A big thank you to Dr Simon Bugden for acting in the Executive Director role for the past two weeks.

Take Care,

Angie.

Angie Dobbrick
Executive Director