December 2018
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Giving new hope to the heart
Yesterday, we welcomed Nine News to Northern Hospital Epping to interview Associate Professor Uwais Mohamed, about a new heart procedure helping patients who experience problems with their pacemakers. Pacemakers can improve life for many people with heart problems, but in some cases, can trigger adverse effects and heart failure symptoms. 77-year old Northern Health patient, Colin Berryman, could barely manage to take the rubbish out. After having a pacemaker for several years and still experiencing heart problems, Colin was losing hope. “It was like the end of the world,” he says. “You get crushing chest pain – it’s as if you’ve…
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Christmas Appeal: A hand to hold
In September this year, 3-year old Loyal quickly turned from a carefree kid at home in the morning, to a child fighting for life in the afternoon. Seeing him rushed through our Emergency Department unresponsive and blue, his parents thought they might lose him. After receiving the best possible care at Northern Hospital, he pulled through the night. However, the life-threatening asthma is still there, and the walls of our Children’s Ward have become very familiar to him. Loyal is one of 22,000 children who present to our Paediatric Emergency Department every year, many of them sharing a similar, life-threatening…
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Chief Executive Message
2018 Northern Health Quality Account This week we’ve published the 2018 Northern Health Quality Account on our website. In the report, you can read about our absolute commitment to patient safety and improving the patient experience, and our quality and safety achievements over the last 12 months. We know this would not be possible without dedication from our staff, cooperation from our patients and their families, as well as involvement with our community members. Providing Trusted Care to all of our patients is our commitment, and with the ongoing High Reliability transformation, we are making significant improvements in clinical practice…
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Movember: Time for the mo to go?
It’s been a very successful Movember here at Northern Health. Social Work Clinical Leader and Movember group organiser, Juan Alhucema, said the team at Northern Health pledged to either cut, grow, shave or dye their hair – should the group receive over $1,000 in donations. “I am happy to say that we have raised $2,632.85 in donations and we would like to thank everyone who participated in the cause,” Juan said. “This has been a great bonding activity for all us men involved here at Northern Health. Even though I lost my ponytail in the process!” added Juan with a laugh.…
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Patient Experience: Small things matter
Northern Health has commenced on a journey to become a highly reliable organisation, and improving patient experience is one of the key components. We work in a fast paced, ever changing health environment and sometimes it’s easy to lose track of the small things that matter. But, what are those things? Back in 1992, I had an experience as a student midwife that changed the way I thought for the rest of my career. I was looking after a lady having her third baby and I’d delivered less than seven babies as a student midwife. Post birth, she had a…
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Discussing Disability: Interview with Dr Harry Eeman
Dr Harry Eeman, Rehabilitation Medicine Physician at Northern Health, was a young medical student when he was struck down by a severe form of Guillain-Barré syndrome whilst backpacking in Europe. Guillain-Barré syndrome is a rare but serious autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks healthy nerve cells in your peripheral nervous system. This leads to weakness, numbness, and tingling, and can eventually cause paralysis. Harry spent the next two and a half years in hospital, five months of which were spent on a ventilator paralysed in what seemed like a coma-like state, except for the fact that he could…