Yesterday, Northern Hospital Epping welcomed Associate Professor Rajesh Subbiah and his team of cardiologists from St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney.

The group met with Associate Professor Uwais Mohamed and Northern Health cardiologists to observe and learn about ‘His Bundle Pacing’ – a revolutionary new pacemaker technique performed as a Melbourne-first by Dr Mohamed at Northern Hospital last year.

This technique has been attracting nation-wide attention, with Northern Health hosting Channel 9 in December last year to share a remarkable story about the impact this technique has already had on the lives of patients.

The new procedure, only performed on a small number of patients across the country, involves placing tiny electrodes in a different section of the heart – which surgeons had previously been unable to reach.

Northern Health’s guest, Associate Professor Rajesh Subbiah from St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, said, “it’s been an outstanding experience here at the Northern Hospital with Dr Uwais Mohamed and we’ve really enjoyed our time here and learnt a huge amount.”

“We will be taking these skills back to St Vincent’s Sydney to develop the ‘His Bundle Pacing’ program in Sydney. It’s our first visit and it won’t be our last – we’ve enjoyed our time here and we’ll get updates as we move forward to launching the program.”

Dr Mohamed and his cardiology team hosted our guests, and were happy to share the skills and knowledge.

“It’s a pleasure for us to welcome Professor Rajesh Subbiah and his team down from St Vincent’s Sydney. This is a learning experience for us all,” he said.

Dr Mohamed said the new technique involves placing the probe into a central area of the heart, which stimulates both sides at the same time, enabling a more natural and synchronised heartbeat.

He said the new procedure can be performed on patients requiring a pacemaker for the first time, or those who have developed complications from an existing device.

In this week’s Get to know: Q&A with… we catch up with Shiraz Lubke, Northern Pathology Victoria Operations Manager.

Get to know her:

What’s your coffee order?

Long black! I started off half strength and have now worked my way up to full strength.

Could you tell us more about your Northern Health journey?

I started in April 2017 – I moved down from Cairns for the job. It sounded exciting and it’s been very challenging. It’s been a lot of fun, a lot of hard work, a lot of laughs, but I’ve enjoyed my time here. I was managing a small regional laboratory so I’d finished my MBA and I didn’t feel as though I had much room for growth in the job I was in, and this job came up in Melbourne so I thought why not give it a crack?

Can you tell us a bit about your career before Northern Health? 

I was a bench scientist for many years and then a supervisor – my interest lies in biochemistry. I moved around in lots of different labs. So my last stop was in Cairns as the manager there.

What do you enjoy most about your role here?

I have to say I enjoy the people. If it wasn’t for the people, you wouldn’t stay in a workplace. I love the people and I love the fact that in this job I feel like I’m giving back to the community. This particular role, bringing public pathology back into the public sector, is so against the trend and it’s something I’m really passionate about. I also love that the role is in Melbourne – I love the sport!

I was born and bred in Ipswich, went to Uni in Brisbane, but Melbourne’s always been one of those places we go to on holiday and love it. I’m a sports nut – I love the cricket, footy, tennis. I also go to the Melbourne Theatre Company – there’s just always something on. The lifestyle down here is just fabulous – I love it, so to have a job down here that’s meaningful and challenging, ticks all the boxes.

What was your biggest challenge?

I think it was coming from private to public, it’s very different. And also not having a network, because when you’ve been in a company for as long as I had in my previous role, you know who to go to for what and you’ve got all those networks. Coming down here, I didn’t know anyone, had to build all of those networks and find out who to go to for what. That was actually a really big challenge. And of course there was the inherent parts of the job which I hadn’t done before, so the role itself has been challenging, but also very rewarding.

What is something that people don’t know about you?

That my ultimate favourite job in the world would be walking dogs for a living! I’m one of those weird dog people…

What do you usually do after a long day at work?

I run – that’s how I keep my head in its rightful spot. And I also read, I love just switching off and I love paper books – there’s nothing better than going to a secondhand bookshop and flicking through a paperback book.

How would you describe Northern Health in one word? 

Community.

Who would you like to nominate next for a staff profile?

I would love to nominate Evelyne Kollaras from People and Culture!

Recently, we welcomed our new students completing their Certificate II in Community Services and Business Administration to Northern Health.

Northern Health Chief Executive Siva Sivarajah, and Executive Director People and Culture, Michelle Fenwick, would like to personally welcome the new students and wish them exciting times ahead at Northern Health.

“It’s great to welcome these new students to Northern Health and see their eagerness to learn everything there is to know about business and community,” Michelle said.

“This program delivers real time business administrative experience, and provides recognised business experience and qualifications for one of the largest employers of Melbourne’s north – Northern Health.”

Alysha Spencer, Advisor – Organisational Capability, said the program started when Michelle had a conversation in late 2016 about youth employment and training opportunities in Melbourne’s North. Fast forward to 2019, and Northern Health has a youth employment and training program in place for the third year running.

“These students join us from various high schools in our catchment area. Their focus is to achieve their goals whilst completing their Certificates,” Alysha said.

Our eight students will be working with us across Broadmeadows Hospital, Bundoora Centre and Northern Hospital Epping every Thursday and Friday.

Students will be working across different areas including Health Information Services, Patient Quality Experience, Outpatients, Neonatal Unit, Engineering Services and Broadmeadows administration.

Please say hello to our students if you see them around the various campuses and make them feel welcome.

During the four weeks in February, Northern Health’s ‘Smart Eating Staff Challenge’ motivated some of our staff to make healthier, smarter choices.

At the start of the campaign, Dietitians, Amy Castelli and Cliona Twohig, emphasised the idea behind the campaign was to motivate our staff to look after themselves. The main goal was to encourage staff to make simple and small changes every day, which would lead to developing healthy long-term habits.

The staff shared their February healthy eating photos through the dedicated Intranet page, with the photos ranging from dinners on the balcony after work to staff team lunches.

After careful consideration, Debra Bourne, Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, has chosen the winning photo – the Broadmeadows team:

Cliona Twohig, Dietitian, submitted the photo saying: “Here are the Dietitians, Speech Pathologists and Food Service staff at Broadmeadows Hospital. We got together to enjoy some tasty, nourishing foods last week. It was a great excuse to share lunch with colleagues we don’t often see outside of our business duties.”

On behalf of the Broadmeadows team, Cliona accepted the prize today, adding that February has been an exciting month for everyone involved.

“It was inspiring to see staff excited about their fruit and vegetables, and sharing their meals. I think everyone enjoyed the campaign and I am hoping we can bring it back next year. The $100 Coles-Myer gift card will go towards a shared lunch for the teams involved, and we can’t wait to get back together and share our healthy meals again,” she said.

Northern Health’s focus on healthy eating doesn’t end here, as we will be announcing Northern Health’s new staff food policy – more details to follow next week! Stay tuned…

Last night, the Northern Health Foundation held their annual ‘Thank You’ event, acknowledging the continued and generous contributions of Foundation supporters and their families.

Held at The Mail Exchange Hotel, a historical Melbourne venue owned by Foundation patron Alex Robertson, the evening was filled with great food and networking, and was a wonderful way to personally show our supporters the difference they have made to Northern Health.

Andrew Williamson, Executive Director Public Affairs and Foundation, opened the event by highlighting how the contributions of our donors has helped to improve and upgrade several areas throughout Northern Health, including the Children’s Ward, Neonatal Unit, Day Oncology Unit, Paediatric Emergency High Acuity Unit, Paediatric High Dependency Unit (currently under construction), the purchase of emergency accommodation in Wollert and funding of research scholarships and programs.

John Molnar, Northern Health Foundation Board Chair, said the Foundation exists to support the life changing, and often life-saving, work of Northern Health.

“I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to all of our generous supporters, patrons, corporate partners, dedicated volunteers, Northern Health staff and everyone who has contributed towards our fundraising efforts through donations, grants and support at our events,” he said.

“As the demand for health services in the north continues to increase, the Foundation will continue to do all it can to support Northern Health to provide outstanding health care for our community,” he added.

“Thank you for your continued support of the Northern Health Foundation.”

Check out the video below to hear from some of our staff about the contribution our donors have made to their areas:

Yesterday, 13 of Northern Health’s consumers and volunteers completed a tour of the new Ward 17 (ICU) as part of Northern Hospital’s Stage 2 Tower Expansion Project.

Since September 2017 to mid 2018, consumers and volunteers at Northern Health were involved at all stages of the design process, and provided valuable ideas and suggestions from their experiences at Northern Health and other hospitals.

This feedback was considered and incorporated into the plans for the tower expansion design, and the consumers and volunteers had the opportunity yesterday to see the design come to life!

Mary De Gori, Director of Capital Planning and Development, thanked the consumers and volunteers for their input throughout the different design phases.

“They had really valuable suggestions, which have been incorporated into the building,” she said.

“Yesterday, the consumers seemed very happy with how it all came together, and we received some great feedback from them,” she added.

The Northern Hospital Stage 2 Expansion Project will expand the facilities and infrastructure completed in June 2016 (three storey tower block connected to the main hospital). The Victorian Government committed $162.7M for the Stage 2 project to be delivered in an early works ($22.17M) and main works ($140.5M) stage.

‘Stage 2 early works’ commenced late March 2018, with the construction of a new loading dock, mortuary, back of house (supply, environmental services, stores) and plant to ground level, including fit-out of a Level 1 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with 18 ICU beds.

Consumer Participation Coordinator, Sherrilyn Ballard, said, “It was a great joy to see many faces light up in response to seeing the fruition of their patient and family-centred feedback come to life.”

“To see it from the drawings on the table to how it looks today is just brilliant,” Consumer, Faye Foggie, said of the tour yesterday.

“As a consumer, it was great to have a voice,” Faye added.

Another of our consumers, Veronica Jeffrey, said, “We were engaged from the start, so it’s very nice to see the finished project we have all contributed to. The hospital really listened to us.”

The current ICU is planned to move into the new ICU on 26 March 2019.

Staff tours of the new Ward 17 (ICU) will be commencing 4 March 2019 and RSVP’s are essential. To book a tour, please click here. 

The project team have also established a portal on the Intranet, where staff can view images, floor plans and answer any questions you may have. Click here to go to the portal. 

Last week, Northern Hospital’s Emergency Department experienced the highest demand in its recorded history. This culminated on Monday, 25 February, when the department saw the highest number of patient presentations to date – caring for 343 patients in just one day.

From Monday, 18 February through to Sunday, 24 February, the Emergency Department experienced a record average of 307 presentations a day.

During that time, the team met the ‘ambulance offload’ time, which is a fantastic achievement for Northern Health, and makes us one of the best performing hospitals in ambulance offload rates.

Cindy Joffe, Divisional Director, said the department performed very well during this time.

“This means the majority of our patients were seen in a timely manner, and placed in the right bed at the right time,” she explained.

Reflecting on Monday, Cindy added that all patients were treated safely, and feels very proud of the team that pulled together and worked very hard to ensure there were no clinical incidents. The category 1 and 2 patients, who are classified as the sickest patients, were seen in the correct time.

“We started Monday with the usual amount of staff, and as we noticed the demand was increasing more than usual, we called on more staff to come in. We followed all the escalation procedures to make sure we could continue safely into the night,” she said.

Nurses were placed in the waiting room to ensure all the patients received appropriate care and attention.

“We have an excellent relationship with Ambulance Victoria and we talked about the possible causes of the patient increase. There actually wasn’t one specific cause that initiated this number of patients. The increased volume of patients was present on the same day at other hospitals as well,” she said.

Dean Pritchard, Acting Director of Emergency Department, expressed his appreciation for staff who worked these record days.

“A huge thank you to our medical, nursing, support and operational staff for their support over the past week. The combined efforts of the Emergency Department, access team and inpatient units allowed over 2,100 patients to be treated in a timely fashion,” he said.

Chief Operating Officer, Jane Poxon, said, “I’m proud of the way staff have responded to the large numbers of patients arriving at the Northern Hospital Emergency Department.

“Last week was certainly a testament to the dedication and collaboration of our Northern Health team.”

This morning, Northern Health hosted its first community wellbeing session with our neighbours from across the way, Pacific Epping Shopping Centre.

Dietitian, Emily Farrugia, hosted the session, discussing all things healthy eating in Q&A style, to help answer any questions the visitors and shoppers had about their diet.

Customers had the chance to get tips and advice on how to adopt smarter eating habits, and learn about Northern Health’s dietetics services in the community.

“Today was a great opportunity to engage with our local community and bust some myths around nutrition and health – it was great to see plenty of interest and provide others with a step in the right direction – with the right advice – to take charge of their health,” Emily said.

The event was the first of a series of specialised sessions, coordinated by the Northern Health Foundation, with the aim to enhance community engagement and overall wellbeing in Melbourne’s north.

Northern Health Foundation Director, Yvonne Amos, said, “Today we launched a series of health and wellbeing sessions in conjunction with Pacific Epping to further our work in helping to build a healthier northern community. Thank you to all who supported us today and we look forward to the next event in March.”

The next session will be focused on ‘mums and bubs’. Stay tuned…