Louise Oriti, Executive Director, Redcliffe Hospital

We marked two big milestones this week in our progression back to business as usual.

After more than two years of activation, the hospital’s Emergency Operations Centre stood down this week. This stand-down phase was long-planned and mirrored what has happened at a Metro North level and across other facilities.

It was fitting too that on its last day of operation, our EOC reported that we had no staff unable to attend work because of COVID-19 reasons. Only a couple of months ago, that number was approaching 100 staff daily. We’ve clearly come a long way.

The second significant milestone was the decision by the Queensland Chief Health Officer to scale down PPE requirements in Emergency Departments and ambulances. The PPE requirements for the Emergency Department are now the same as for all other areas of the hospital. If you have questions about the appropriate PPE to wear, please talk to your line manager or Infection Prevention.

Redcliffe Hospital Giving Day – Friday 14 October

We’re now less than a month away from Raise it for Redcliffe’s biggest fundraising event of the year – Redcliffe Hospital Giving Day.

Last year’s Giving Day raised more than $170,000, and we have high hopes for that kind of success again this year. Just like last year, too, donations are being matched, dollar-for-dollar, by corporate partners – doubling the impact of those donations.

Already we’ve seen some great fundraising work from hospital staff supporting Giving Day. The Facility Services team have organised a pie drive, with $3 from each pie going toward Raise it for Redcliffe. Louise Joce and the Medicine Service Line team also put in a great effort last Saturday out at Bunnings Rothwell, selling more than 600 sausages and raising $2,000.

Once again, we’re looking for staff to volunteer their time in the phone action hub on Giving Day. If you can spare some of your own time on the day, please register here.  If you’ve got an idea for how your unit or area could get involved, find out more about how to get organised here.

Health Equity and Racism

As part of our Health Equity agenda, all of our job descriptions at Redcliffe Hospital and Metro North now include a section entitled “health equity and racism”. This change recognises that we all have a role in positively contributing to the key priority areas of our Health Equity agenda. It also means that it is part of everyone’s job at Redcliffe Hospital to:

• Actively support the elimination of racial discrimination and institutional racism;
• Support increased access to health care;
• Influence the social, cultural and economic determinants of health; 
• Support the delivery of sustainable, culturally safe and responsive health services; and
• Recognise the importance of working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, communities and organisations to design, deliver, monitor and review the health and support services we provide.

Health Equity is based in legislation, and Metro North launched our Health Equity Strategy during NAIDOC Week earlier this year. You can expect to hear a lot more from me about our Health Equity strategy and its implementation in the coming weeks and months. For now, I encourage everyone to read more about the strategy here.

September People & Culture Forum

Everyone is invited to join the September People & Culture Forum next Tuesday on Teams from 11am. This session, presented by our Redcliffe People & Culture Partners (formerly known as the HR team), is titled #IamRedcliffe. – Supporting your employment experience and will cover employment conditions, employee benefits, professional development plans, staff wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, health equity and much, much more.

On a personal note from me

At our last Orientation session, I was listening to a new staff member tell me about their first experience with our hospital.  For this person, their connection with our hospital began with both of their parents being cared for by our palliative care team over the course of many years. I’ve heard a lot of stories like this, and they all include words like compassion, kindness, and dignity.

In preparing for a Raise it for Redcliffe event recently, I met with the NUM of the Palliative Care Unit, Kim Shesgreen, and listened to her vision for the unit and the special kind of people that work in palliative care. We’re fortunate that so many of them continue to say #IamRedcliffe.

Louise