December 2019
-
Trusted care for the community all year round
Northern Health has had an impressive 2018-19 year! In our rapidly growing community, we are continually improving our services and care to meet demand. To support our increasing population, Northern Hospital’s Emergency Department (ED) treated more than 107,000 presentations, continuing on from last year as the busiest ED in the state. We admitted 98,193 patients to hospital, performed 10,385 elective surgeries and saw 232,496 outpatients in our specialist clinics! Our Ambulance Offload initiative has led to an increase from 78 per cent of ambulances offloaded within 40 minutes to 95 per cent in the last 12 months, and is now…
-
Stay safe in heat
With the temperatures rising to 43 degrees today, it’s important to stay safe and protected from the heat, as well as to keep an eye on the fire warnings. Jason Amos, Manager, Emergency Management, said today is an Extreme Fire Danger Day in Central and North Central Districts along with most of the State of Victoria. “These conditions may have a serious impact on Northern Health and our community, and have the potential to place patients, staff, volunteers and other workplace participants at risk. Please stay aware of the fire danger rating and know what to do at all times. The…
-
Thi Nguyen – 2019 Clinical Excellence Award Winner
Thi Nguyen, Nurse Unit Manager Ward 4, won the ‘2019 Clinical Excellence Award’ at this year’s Northern Health Annual Meeting. This annual award came after her winning the ‘Above and Beyond’ at the Staff Recognition Awards in July this year. She was nominated by Sue Pike, Operations Director Medicine, who said Ward 4 is a medical ward with a complex patient cohort, including patients with behavioural challenges due to dementia, mental health diagnoses and younger patients with autism and intellectual disabilities. “At all times, Thi strives to ensure that her patients and their families are supported during admission. Recently, the…
-
Do they know its Christmas
The children at Northern Hospital were not allowed to forget it is Christmas, with presents and visits from Santa facilitated by a host of kind hearted individuals and community – minded organisations. This year too ISS Facility Services held their annual Christmas Appeal for presents for those children spending time at Northern Hospital over the Christmas season. The response from staff was overwhelming, and brought a smile to many a child when they got their presents with the assistance of Santa who paid them a visit curtesy Epping Plaza last Friday. Snez Poposka, Facilities Service Manager ISS and key organiser…
-
Christmas Decorating Competition Winners
It’s that time of the year again, when our staff and volunteers get together to decorate their favourite work areas and bring joy to our patients, visitors and their families. Like in the previous years, our Christmas decorating competition has attracted numerous creative entries across four Northern Health’s campuses. Northern Health judges, including Debra Bourne, Andrew Williamson, Briana Baass, Grant Taylor, Simon Keating and Lora Davies visited the contestants, completing their visits with our annual Christmas staff BBQs. The talented entries made it very hard for the judges to pick a winner, as all entries were marked based on visual…
-
Festive Christmas BBQ Lunches
This week, Northern Health staff and volunteers were treated to festive Christmas BBQ lunches at Broadmeadows Hospital, Northern Hospital, Craigieburn Centre and Bundoora Centre. These BBQs are a chance to celebrate the end of another fantastic year of providing care to our community. Staff and volunteers enjoyed some lunch and holiday cheer with colleagues, with members of the Executive donning aprons to sizzle sausages and serve food to our staff. Please see some photos from the BBQ’s below, along with some other festive activities across Northern Health! View more BBQ photos here.
-
Looking forward to 2020
In 2019, growth in demand for Northern Health’s services continued, and we’ve recognised that we can’t do things the same way we have in the past. That why we’ve established a new Staying Well program to help supporting and caring for patients at home, so that not all patients need to come into hospital. We’ve established and strengthened partnerships to provide care together with local primary health care networks, community health services, Aboriginal health organisations, Women’s Health in the North and local government. Staying Well be a strong focus for us during 2020. In addition to our outreach and partnerships,…
-
Debra Bourne: Nursing and Midwifery highlights
This year, there have been a number of nursing and midwifery achievements that I have been proud of. The first would be the Graduate Nurses and Midwives Quality Projects, with over 130 projects completed and their posters displayed in the corridors at the Northern Hospital. There was real depth within these projects, and they provided a good insight into quality and safety issues that these graduates had identified. But in addition, there was also a demonstration of some really innovative ideas that have now been embedded into practice. This year there was an increased number of  nurses and midwives that were involved in…