Christmas came early for Toxicologist and Emergency Physician, Dr Joe Rotella, after receiving news that he had been awarded the title of Associate Professor (Clinical) from the Department of Critical Care at the University of Melbourne’s Medical School.

Associate Professor Rotella is one of a handful of Emergency Physicians to receive this accolade and the first for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Northern Health.

“A worthy recipient of University of Melbourne recognition!” said Wanda Stelmach, Chief Medical Officer.

“Joe, who I am proud to say was my intern, has been instrumental in setting up and supporting the Toxicology service at Northern Health – a service that in effect supports the northern community, which is close to Joe’s heart,” she added. 

A Clinical Toxicologist and Emergency Physician, A/Prof Rotella returned to the ‘Great North’ over a decade after he first walked into the Emergency Department as a 4th year medical student in 2006.

He now works in the Emergency Department and runs the SPECTRE Unit, a novel team aiming to provide care for patients with problems relating to Toxicology, Toxinology, Substance Use, Mental Health and Trauma.

Since growing up in the northern suburbs, A/Prof Rotella has maintained a strong connection to the area and is especially passionate about caring for our diverse community here in the north.

On receiving the new title, A/Prof Rotella said, “It has been an honour to receive this recognition and to represent Northern Health. It is a nod to the innovative and collaborative environment we foster in the north and holds promise for a great future ahead.”

This week, 50 enthusiastic junior doctors commenced their internship orientation virtually.

Dr Carol Chong, Supervisor of Interns, said the Omicron variant made things unpredictable for the Medical Education Unit.

“Our aim was to ensure the safest and best experience for the new interns. Half of the intern cohort are from the Northern Clinical School and are familiar with the hospital and the other half of the cohort is a mixture of Monash, Deakin, interstate and overseas interns,” she explained.

One of them is Joshua Lendon, who moved from Geelong into Melbourne’s north for this opportunity. He is now looking forward to becoming more familiar with how the hospital is set up, and the tasks he will be performing every day.

“I am actually from Deakin, and was trained in Geelong. I am excited to do some hands-on doctoring and explore different areas through my rotations. Northern Health staff have done a great job of organising the online orientation. Thank you Northern Health for taking me on. I am excited to be here and make a difference,” he said.

His colleague Christie Yung, who studied at the University of Melbourne, is also is very excited about her internship and the upcoming rotations.

“I am starting at Psychiatry and looking forward to seeing how it looks at Northern. Everyone has been saying a lot of good things about Northern Health, and I am looking forward to being in this culture and working here. I also had to move houses to live closer to work and I am looking forward to getting to know the north better,” she explained.

“It’s the first time that we’ve had to go virtual for most of the orientation. Interns have done very well to navigate around MS Teams and the various channels we have created online to ensure a smooth virtual transition. It has been great watching them using the chat function to ask questions and seek clarification,” said Susie Sangas, Medical Education Manager.

Susie and the team also held a face-to-face two-hour workshop, which involved rotating through Basic Life Support, Cannulation, PPE and Indwelling Catheters skills stations in small groups, in N95 masks and face shields.

“There is also an opportunity for the interns who are not familiar with the Northern Hospital to get a tour by the outgoing interns,” Susie added.

“It has been a huge effort from many staff in the hospital to ensure orientation runs smoothly. We’d like to thank everyone who has participated so far. Some of them are Jeff Khoshaba and team Pharmacy and the Junior Medical Staff Association (JMSA), who have been integral in the running of the orientation,” Dr Chong added.

Last month, Northern Health held the Length of Service Awards for 2021, where more than 400 staff were celebrated for achieving between 10 and 45 years of dedicated service.

Eight award recipients celebrated 40 and 45 years of service. The 40 year award recipients included Anne Roast, Sharon Robinson, Ann Maffei, Glenda Levens, Stefan Herodotou and Helen Opasinis.

Sharon Robinson, said, “For the past 22 years, I have worked at Broadmeadows Hospital in different roles and in one place. Broadmeadows Hospital is a very friendly place and this friendliness and compassion from all members of the various teams who work there to achieve the outcomes for the patients, makes going to work enjoyable.”

Stefan Herodotou: “I honestly feel like it was only yesterday when I was interviewed for the job and I can clearly remember my excitement when I received the call a few days later, telling me that the job was mine. A lot of people ask me, how could you be doing this and for so long? Life in the fast line of the Emergency Department is full of highs and lows. How can you forget or not become emotional when as a team you save someone’s life? I regard myself as honoured and privileged to have had the opportunity to be part of this amazing institution and work next to so many wonderful and inspirational people.”

Helen Opasinis: “I have had the pleasure of working as a mothercraft nurse and caring for three generations of families within 41 years of service, but it would be the unknown impact you have on people’s lives over the years, whether it be the people you care for, the students, or the staff you work with. How blessed I feel to have been part of their noteworthy and remarkable event.”

Here’s what the recipient’s managers had to say about their staff.

Belinda Nash on Sharon Robinson: “Whilst I have only known Sharon for two years, I am aware of her many achievements over 40 years whilst on Unit 2 Rehabilitation. She has been a well-respected and valued member of the rehabilitation team. She has attributed to so many changes to the unit and has been a great support to new staff and students. We wish to congratulate Sharon on her outstanding achievements over her career.”

Jade Ralston on Anne Roast: “Anne is a kind, caring and incredibly wise member of the People and Culture team. Her historical knowledge is invaluable and we are lucky to learn from her experiences. Despite all the changes she has been through in the past 40 years, one thing that has continued to grow is her passion for staff and patients. This is at the forefront of what she does every day.”

Nicholas Caruana on Ann Maffei: “If you’ve ever worked at Northern Hospital Epping, you’ll know Ann by her distinct Scottish accent, calling emergency codes over the PA. Ann’s professionalism, dedication and authenticity stems from her love for helping people and her down-to-earth personality. She is able to find the humour in almost any given situation and is highly respected and valued by all who know her.”

Nadine Stowell on Glenda Levens: “Glenda is a skilled and dedicated nurse, who gives her patients excellent nursing care. Glenda treats each patient as a person first and a patient second. She will chat with those are are lonely, sit with those who are frightened and offers companionship and respect to all. We are fortunate to have her working with us on Ward 18.”

Megan Robb on Stefan Herodotou: “Stefan is a living legend of the Northern Hospital Epping Emergency Department. In a career spanning 40 years across emergency medicine, surgery and general practice, Stefan is well loved and deeply respected by his patients, community and colleagues. A passionate teacher, he continues to inspire a new generation of doctors with his gentle, patient-centred and humble approach to medicine.”

Barbara Rischitelli on Helen Opasinis: “Helen is a much loved and valued mothercraft nurse who brought so many outstanding qualities to ensure safer, kinder care delivery to all of her patients and families. Helen has provided a wealth of knowledge and experience to our team.”

Featured image L-R: Stefan Herodotou, Helen Opasinis, Ann Maffei and Glenda Levens

The ISS Concierge Team at our Vaccination Clinic at Plenty Ranges Arts and Convention Centre (PRACC) has received an ISS Apple Award.

Apple Awards are client-nominated and recognise our placemakers who demonstrate the ISS values and deliver customer service excellence across ISS chosen sectors.

Hayley Gray, Nurse Unit Manager COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic, nominated the team for the award, acknowledging their great customer service skills and ability to adapt in a fast changing environment.

“On behalf of the Northern Health Vaccination Clinic, I nominate the incredible concierge team at PRACC for an Apple Award. Thank you for always performing over and above your required duties to ensure all clients are welcomed and safe on arrival,” Hayley said.

“You are all an asset to our Vaccination Clinic team. The friendly and informative demeanour of each and every one of the concierge team makes me proud to walk alongside them all.”

“I commend you on your ability to assist in the ever changing and fast paced environment. Thank you all.”

Saj Amerasinghe, ISS Key Account Manager, said, “The ISS concierge team has done a tremendous job demonstrating the Northern Health and ISS core values from day one. They provide an important and supportive role in the overall process, focusing on the consumers by greeting community members and assisting them to understand the flow and process. Job well done and I am very proud of my team.”

Snezana Poposka, ISS Facility Services Manager and Northern Health Concierge Project Lead, also congratulated the team.

“Leading the concierge team and working closely with the management in the Vaccination Hub has been a great part of my daily job. Everyone has been very professional and polite, and most importantly, they feel very proud to be caring for our community,” Snezana said.

“They have always worked as one team. I am very proud of the concierge team what on have they have achieved in keeping our community safe.”

Featured image: Hayley Gray (far left) Nurse Unit Manager, Saj Amerasinghe (middle front) ISS Key Account Manager, with ISS Concierge team.

Associate Professor Wei Qi Fan, has been awarded Medical Doctor Year 3 (MD3) Teacher of the Year.

Wei Qi has been working at Northern Hospital Epping as a consultant paediatrician and neonatologist since 2004. She is the Head of Neonatal Unit and is currently a member of the State Neonatal Advisory Group and the Maternal and Newborn Leadership Group. She is also an Associate Professor in paediatrics at the University of Melbourne – Paediatric Academic Lead/Course Coordinator at University of Melbourne Northern Clinical School.

Wei Qi has been awarded the Teacher of the Year award eight of the last nine years, and is honoured to be recognised by her medical students.

“It really is an honour for paediatrics to see so many students enthused about paediatric medicine, which makes it a wonderful team effort,” she said.

“I have a great personal passion to teach others and believe I have a gift to engage students. I have more than 25 years of experience teaching paediatric medicine at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in Melbourne. Soon after I started working at Northern Health, I became a Melbourne University lecturer and Child and Adolescent Health teaching coordinator. Northern Health’s paediatric rotation is now widely recognised as the best centre among all the other Melbourne University clinical schools.”

Dr Leonie Griffiths, Director Northern Clinical School, congratulated Wei Qi on her great achievement.

“Wei Qi is a long-standing recipient of this award. She continues to show the students commitment, enthusiasm and advocacy which ensures students have a fantastic time undertaking their children and adolescent health rotation at Northern Health. Students remark studying paediatrics is a highlight in the course and attribute this to Wei Qi’s investment in their learning providing opportunities for feedback and consolidation of challenging concepts.”

“Congratulations on winning MD3 Teacher of the Year. Your continued passion and dedication showed towards the students is greatly appreciated, you clearly are a wonderful role model and integral to the success of the rotation and the clinical school, thank you so much.”

Wei Qi said she feels she has a responsibility to pass her knowledge, gathered over the years, onto others.

“I enjoy getting to know students when they are on paediatric rotation and get a great sense of satisfaction in guiding them through their studies,” she said.

“With all students, my role is to make sure they have both adequate knowledge and have learnt how to be a safe and caring doctor in the paediatric setting.”

“Many of my ex-medical students are now medical specialists – some of them medical specialists at Northern Health.”

Wei Qi’s students have described her as, “very dedicated,” and always going, “above and beyond to teach and find us new learning opportunities.”

“No one is more committed to her students than her. She is relentless in her efforts to aid students in their learning, doing everything in her power to assist them,” says one student.

“She’s incredible. She is a great teacher and advocate for students’ learning and education. The paediatric rotation at the Northern is by far the best run and most helpful of all rotations in my entire degree,” says another student.

Well done and congratulations Wei Qi!

From today, our vaccination centre at Plenty Ranges Arts and Convention Centre (PRACC) at 35 Ferres Blvd, South Morang is open for children aged 5 to 11 years old.

The children’s vaccination clinic at PRACC is a dedicated child-friendly space with entertainment and activities to make the process less stressful for children.

Lucy is 9 years old, and was one of the first to queue up this morning for her vaccine.  She is looking forward to starting Year 4 at school with her classmates. She understands that there might be delays, but after two big years she is keen to join her friends at school. She knows that getting the vaccine will help bring back, ‘some kind of normality,’ as her mum says.

However, Lucy has another reason for getting vaccinated. In 2020 her grandmother got COVID -19 and spent five weeks in hospital.

As Lucy says, “I got my vaccination to protect my grandma.”

Hayley Grey, Nurse Unit Manager in charge of PRACC, informs us vaccination for children at the Civic Centre at PRACC is strictly bookings only.

She says, “Adult vaccinations, from 12 years upwards, is open for both bookings and walk-ins, however bookings are recommended.”

“Please bring your Medicare card (if you have one) to your appointment,” she adds.

Craig Lloyd. CEO City of Whittlesea, says, “Getting children vaccinated before they return to school is an important part of protecting our whole community, along with other measures like masks, distancing and good ventilation.”

“We are pleased to be partnering again with the City of Whittlesea in this program to keep both adults and kids safe in the community,” says Debra Bourne, Acting Chief Operating Officer, Northern Health.

Featured image shows Lucy  showing the way.

Dear all,

Northern Health is preparing for one of the greatest challenges we’ve faced in this pandemic – the growing demand for care at a time when our available workforce is decreasing due to the impacts of COVID-19.

Even though Omicron is a milder variant, the projected hospitalisations for COVID cases in Victoria are expected to continue to grow and peak around the end of January 2022. This is a similar trajectory already being demonstrated by New South Wales.

This week here at Northern Health, we have experienced approximately eight per cent of our workforce have either been confirmed COVID positive and many others have been furloughed due to close contact/household exposures. We have a high number of patients both presenting to the Emergency Department and requiring admissions for COVID.

With the current wave expected to run for another six to eight weeks, we are expecting between 15 to 20 per cent of our staff will be unavailable to work at its absolute peak. Now more than ever we need to live our organisational values of Safe, Kind and Together.

Our staff are essential to delivering the best quality of health care to all of our patients, and it is only because of the size of this challenge that I am asking all staff to please review their current approved annual leave over the coming six weeks and either (i) reduce their applied leave by 50 per cent (i.e. if you have two weeks planned, could you only take one week) or (ii) postpone your leave outright and reschedule for late March 2022 and beyond.

I have given much consideration to this request, and it is not one I have taken lightly. However, over the next six weeks, we need as many of our staff, clinical and non-clinical, who can work to do so, supporting colleagues and patients through this wave.

 Therefore, I am asking you to please consider my  request and speak with your manager, colleagues and families over the coming days. Heads of Units, Nurse Managers and Directors will talk with teams about this at the local level. Of course, you can always seek more information through our People and Culture team.

I know so many of you need time to rest and recuperate, and that would be my wish for you. However, maintaining sufficient staffing is our greatest current challenge. We must continue to meet the needs of our patients and share that workload as much as possible.

As always, I am truly appreciative of the many sacrifices you have made and continue to make through this the pandemic to support each other and our community.

Siva Sivarajah
Chief Executive

“To see her smile when she sees me is all the thanks that I need.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Pauline Chua

 

The Australian Government Community Visitors Scheme has been providing social companionship to residents in Aged Care facilities in the Northern Region for the past 30 years.

The Community Visitors Scheme (CVS) provides friendship and companionship by matching volunteers with aged care residents who are isolated or at risk of social isolation or loneliness.

CVS aims to improve quality of life for aged care residents by reducing their feelings of loneliness, improving their mental well-being, giving them a sense of purpose and connecting them with others in their community.

Northern Health has seen approximately one hundred Community Volunteers engaging with the program over the past 30 years, with some visiting with one resident, and others finding that meeting a group of residents has proven to be beneficial to both residents and volunteers alike.

Pauline Chua, is one volunteer who has spent the past 16 years visiting with a number of residents from Villa Maria and Grace Villa. Pauline enjoys spending time with residents and has visited a number of them during her time with the program.

Pauline originally started visiting others when she was 12 years old in Singapore and has continued this throughout her life in Australia. She gets great joy out of offering her time to others, and feels that a simple chat with someone and listening to their story can really make an impact.

Nancy Gionfriddo has also spent the past 16 years visiting with residents at Villa Maria. Domenica was one of these residents. Nancy enjoyed the weekly chats and developed a wonderful relationship over this time with her. Often they will sit together and talk about time spent in Italy or the similarities they both have. Although they were both of Italian origin, they spoke a different dialect which at times created great laughter as they tried to work out what the other was saying.

In recent weeks, CVS Coordinator, Monica Polimeni, has been visiting the volunteers at their homes to present them with a thank you card and CVS branded cookie to celebrate the 30 year anniversary.

Pictured here are Nancy Gionfriddo and Pauline Chua gratefully accepting their gifts.