They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and this morning, we unveiled an artwork by Yorta Yorta woman Kahli Luttrell from Epping, at the Day Oncology Unit at Northern Hospital Epping.

The picture signifies our continued and ongoing commitment to support our Aboriginal Community. It is as the artist has depicted, a journey that tells its own story.

Funded by an Aboriginal Cultural Safety Program Grant, the artwork is part of a larger project that aims to improve cultural safety at Northern Health.

Besides commissioning an artwork from a local Aboriginal artist, the project also includes consultation with local elders to identify priorities for inclusion, displaying of plaques acknowledging the traditional owners of the land, and the development of a sustainable cultural awareness eLearning training package.

The ‘Koorie Contemporary’ artwork by Ms Luttrell depicts the patient journey, with its seasons and struggles.

What is evident from the painting is that those on this journey are not alone. They ride on the back of turtles; symbolising persistence, strength and resilience.

It doesn’t matter if the road is long. A caring and supportive community is always at hand, represented by the dots and circles – a recurring motif throughout the painting.

The soothing and calming colours, bring a sense of peace.

This painting’s story is far from over. As this project signifies Northern Health’s ongoing commitment to support our Aboriginal community and pays respect to the traditional custodians of the land, past and present – it will also be part of their future.

It further strengthens our connections with our diverse community and our journey towards providing a holistic and culturally appropriate service, in turn, providing trusted care to our northern community.

So, like all good stories, we end by saying ‘to be continued’.

 

Artwork by Kahli Luttrell 

Mr Julian Gardner AM, chair of the Victorian Implementation Task Force for the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act (2017), presented at a forum on Voluntary Assisted Dying on Tuesday.

Julian Gardner is a lawyer with an interest in human rights.

He has been involved in high profile end-of-life decisions and litigation, and responsible for promoting and protecting the rights of people with disabilities that affected their decision-making capacity.

The forum provided an opportunity for staff to hear about the new Act and the role health care services will have when this legislation comes into effect on 19 June 2019. The forum was very well received by health care professionals from all backgrounds at Northern Health.

Julian Gardner, who has extensive experience in advocating for vulnerable people, spoke about the legislative requirements surrounding the Act, and the importance of patients being able to have compassionate access to Voluntary Assisted Dying.

Northern Health has established a steering committee to ensure that we meet the legislative requirements contained in the Act by 19 June 2019. One of the first tasks of the committee is to review the resources at Northern Health to ascertain which pathways will be offered with Voluntary Assisted Dying. 

“Mr Gardner gave a very thorough overview of the governance and patient safety mechanisms involved in the procedure,” said Associate Professor Bill van Gaal, Northern Health Divisional Director of Emergency Services and Director of Cardiology.

Bill, pictured above with Julian Gardner, was just one of the many participants in attendance at the forum.

“This generated much discussion around the process, what this means for patients and their families in our community and steps Northern Health should undertake to comply with the new legislation,” Bill said.

Nominated for his clinical leadership in spinal management, Acting Director of Emergency Department – Emergency Physician, Dr Dean Pritchard, received the award for ‘Excellence in Safety’ at the inaugural Staff Recognition Awards.

Challenged by the lack of a dedicated spinal service at Northern Health, Dean and the quality team identified some system issues that needed to be fixed to better manage spinal patients.

“This was one of the biggest pieces of work I’ve contributed to at Northern Health,” Dean says.

Dean was involved with a team who met with a patient’s family to discuss the findings of a quality case review, and most importantly, explained what things were going to change in response.

“I think being involved in the implementation of a new process really drives you,” Dean says.

In collaboration with the Emergency Department, General Surgery Department, General Medicine and Head of Neurosurgery at St Vincent’s Hospital, a new process was created to better manage spinal patients moving forward.

The new management system was presented at a recent Safe Practice Forum, highlighting Northern Health’s progress in treating an increasing number of patients presenting with spinal fractures.

Deputy Director Emergency Department, Jack Yeung, who nominated Dean says, “Dean has been instrumental in his clinical leadership with Spinal Management Protocol Version 2 and has worked well with the Orthotics team at Northern Health.”

On winning the award, Dean says, “there was a lot of work done outside normal work hours and a lot of work done outside my usual scope of practice to make this happen, so to be recognised for that was nice.”

When asked what it is about Northern Health he enjoys, he says it’s the patient mix and staff.

“The presentations are so rich and diverse, and the patients in this area absolutely need the Emergency Department to maintain their physical and mental health.”

“I also like the fact that despite us growing into the size of a larger hospital, we still maintain that friendly interaction between different departments. We’re all still very collegiate and it translates into the way we practice.”

Sponsored by Maxxia and BankVic, our Quarterly Staff Recognition Awards have been designed to formally recognise outstanding contributions by our employees and celebrate staff excellence. Nominations for the next Quarterly Staff Recognition Awards will open December 2018.

Christmas came early for our wonderful volunteers today at the Annual Volunteer Christmas Party, held at the Casa D’Abruzzo Club Epping.

The day was filled with music from DJ Con, delicious food, a lucky draw, dancing and even a surprise visit from Santa.

Northern Health has 350 volunteers who help to deliver our vision of providing trusted care for our community, with the oldest volunteer being 96.

Senior Coordinator Engagement, Henni Wade, was delighted to see everyone dancing and having fun, admiring how the Christmas party is a wonderful opportunity for everyone to come together.

“Sometimes, we don’t see all the people behind the scenes and all the work they do – this is a chance for us to thank them for all their help during the year,” she said.

The dedication of Northern Health’s incredible volunteers was displayed even today, on their day off.

“Even though they had a day off today, some of them still came in early to do their shift and then head to the party, simply because that is what they love. They just felt that they would let their ward down if they took a day off!” Henni said.

Executive Director Public Affairs and Foundation, Andrew Williamson acted as MC and Zoe Devenish, Site and Operations Director Broadmeadows Hospital, thanked the volunteers on behalf of the executive team and management.

Director Northern Health Foundation, Yvonne Amos said the volunteers are equally important and valued by our patients, their families and staff.

“I am astounded by the number of volunteers Northern Health has across its services and by the depth of their work. The volunteers are very much part of the caring community spirit that thrives here at Northern,” she said.

As part of Northern Health’s vision to create a centre for excellence in endovascular procedures, last week, a group of surgeons from Thailand and Vietnam visited Northern Hospital.

The visit provided our guests with the opportunity to observe the performed endovascular procedures, as well as to exchange findings with staff members.

Dr Iman Bayat, Head of Vascular Surgery Unit said that Northern Health collaborates closely with the industry.

“When there’s a requirement for training in overseas countries, the overseas surgeons are brought to Australia to observe our procedures, giving us all a great opportunity to exchange experiences,” he said.

The overseas surgeons witnessed some of the great outcomes our endovascular teams are achieving.

“Today we were successful in performing three endovascular repairs of abdominal aortic aneurysms. One of them was on a 96 year-old patient that was done purely under local anesthetics, and he will be going home tomorrow back to his family,” Dr Bayat said.

During the two day visit, Dr Kumpoo Foofuengmonkolkit, a cardiovascular surgeon from Bangkok, was introduced to medical devices used at Northern Health, as well as given a tour of the hospital and the chance to observe some of the procedures.

“The team here are just fantastic and I’ve learned a lot – especially the new techniques,” he said.

After sharing knowledge with experts from Northern Health and observing procedures, he feels confident he would be able to adapt the findings to procedures he performs in Thailand.

The visit was supported by Medtronic.

Today is White Ribbon Day, a day for the community to come together to show their commitment to ending men’s violence against women.

To mark the occasion, staff at Northern Hospital Epping are holding a bake sale in the foyer until 4 pm – all proceeds will be donated directly to White Ribbon Australia and Berry Street.

White Ribbon Australia strives towards a world free of family violence through primary prevention, engaging men, advocacy, and raising public awareness.

Northern Health is only the second health service in Victoria to be awarded White Ribbon Accreditation.

Northern Health’s primary catchments, the City of Hume, City of Whittlesea and Mitchell Shire Council, experience the highest rates of family violence in Victoria.

Continuing the movement to end violence against women is the ’16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence’ campaign which will commence 25 November (the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) and run until 10 December (Human Rights Day).

The campaign recognises that family violence is a global health issue, with one in three women worldwide experiencing gender-based violence (UN Women 2018).

To show our support and increase awareness, hope and unity, we will be running the following activities during the 16 days:

• Heart Leaves: This involves writing a message of support on a cut out leaf which will be displayed on a tree in the foyer.
• Fingerprint Tree: Place a fingerprint on a tree to show your commitment to ending gender-based violence.
• Polished Man: Paint a fingernail to show your support to raise awareness of, and help prevent violence against children (one child dies every five minutes as a result of violence).
• A Touch of Orange: Have a small orange image on your face for the day to open discussions around awareness and show support to end violence.

On the final day of the campaign, Monday 10 December, our tree full of messages of support will be joined with other trees from public hospitals across Victoria, and displayed in the city at Southbank Spillway between 12 pm – 2 pm. Everyone is encouraged to attend.

For more information about 16 Days of Activism, please click here.

ICT Infrastructure Engineer, Vikramjit Multani, was on holiday in Amsterdam when he received a message from Northern Health staff needing assistance.

Vikramjit offered to help from his hotel but he didn’t have much time – he had a bus to catch in just over an hour for a trip around Holland.

He ran down to reception and requested he borrow a laptop. The only problem…it was in Dutch.

“It was interesting trying to figure out the laptop,” he laughs.

“I eventually got in and offered to stay on the phone and help while I was on the bus,” he tells us.

From the other side of the world, Vikramjit was able to remotely access our systems and work with the team back home to fix the ICT problem – which is why he recently won the award for ‘Above and Beyond’ in our first Quarterly Staff Recognition Awards.

He was nominated by both Northern Health Chief Information Officer, Bill O’Brien, and Mike Masilamani from Public Affairs.

“Vikramjit is a critical part of the ICT support services with unique skills and a fantastic work ethic. He is accountable, knowledgeable and most importantly, reliable,” Bill says.

“I can’t speak highly enough of Vikramjit and his willingness – along with the team in ICT – to readily help out when we’ve  had problems with both the website and intranet, which Public Affairs manage,” says Mike .

On winning the award, Vikramjit says, “It feels great to be acknowledged for our efforts, and in fact the whole team.”

With a Master of Information Technology Systems and studies in Computer Networks, Vikramjit has worked at Northern Health for over a decade. His current role is to look after  infrastructure systems  available for use by clinicians.

As an Epping local, Vikramjit appreciates the efforts of Northern Health staff in providing trusted care to our community.

“Having my kids born at Northern Hospital Epping, I understand just how hard everyone tries to provide quality care,” he says.

“I have a passion for technology, and as technology is the backbone nowadays for patient care, I just love being part of a team trying hard to deliver their services effectively,” he adds.

Vikramjit says the best part about working at Northern Health is his colleagues and seeing people work together at different levels.

“I love working as part of a smart, hardworking infrastructure team, with positive energy and a can-do attitude in what can sometimes be a challenging environment.”

Sponsored by Maxxia and BankVic, our Quarterly Staff Recognition Awards have been designed to formally recognise outstanding contributions by our employees and celebrate staff excellence. Nominations for the next Quarterly Staff Recognition Awards will open December 2018.

Shortness of breath, a repetitive cough, increased phlegm and feeling tired are all possible signs of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

COPD, a term used to describe lung conditions including emphysema, chronic bronchitis and chronic asthma, is a progressive lung condition that obstructs airflow and makes it difficult to breathe.

However, many people with COPD often mistake their symptoms as signs of ageing or lack of fitness. They automatically think to adjust their daily activities to accommodate symptoms rather than seeking help.

Dr Katharine See, Department Head for Respiratory and Sleep Medicine, says COPD is the second leading cause of preventable hospital admissions in Australia.

“One in seven adult patients admitted to Northern Health last year had a confirmed diagnosis of COPD,” she says.

Whilst there are many medicines available to treat COPD symptoms, there are also a number of lifestyle habits such as smoking cessation and  individualised exercise programs which can dramatically improve symptoms, and even slow disease progression.

With the right diagnosis, support and care, patients can dramatically improve their quality of life.

Barry Howden, pictured above with Maureen Goodwin, Respiratory Clinical Nurse Consultant, has just successfully completed six weeks of pulmonary rehabilitation at Northern Health.

“It has helped me with breathing, as well as understand more about my lungs,” Barry says.

“I now have a different outlook on life and can do more than I could do previously!” he continues.

“Early diagnosis is critical to improve outcomes and quality of life,” maintains Dr See.

To learn more about World COPD Day, please click here.