Recently, Northern Health celebrated the 2018 Staff Length of Service Awards, acknowledging 10 years of service right through to 45 years.

Chief Executive, Siva Sivarajah, was delighted to present the awards to such committed and devoted staff.

“One of the best things about Northern Health is our staff and all of you who have been here to see Northern Health grow, develop and become the key provider of trusted care in Melbourne’s north,” he said.

“Whether you work in a clinical or support role – you all contribute to patient care.”

Clinical Specialist, Swee Khor, has been with Northern Health for 40 years, since the early days of PANCH.

“Northern Health is a happy place to work and I find my job very rewarding,” she said.

Our longest serving staff member, Patient Services Assistant, Liuba Vulic, has been with Northern Health for an incredible 45 years, and was one of the first staff members to work at what was previously known as Broadmeadows Health Service.

“I love working at Northern Health because it feels like a big extended family,” she said.

To view and download photos from the day, please click here.
(Photos will be available for download until 30 November 2018)

Recently, Broadmeadows Hospital celebrated their oldest dialysis patient turning 90.

Robert Langford commenced Haemodialysis in 2008 and has been dialysing with the Broadmeadows Hospital Unit for approximately 10 years.

Given the nickname of ‘Bob the Builder’ because of his love for working with wood, Robert enjoys making toy trains, building blocks and chopping boards.

Cheryl Rofe, Nurse Unit Manager, Renal Services at Broadmeadows Hospital, says everyone refers to Bob as the granddad of the unit.

“Bob has been with us for such a long time – he is considered family,” she says.

When Bob turned 90, the team at Broadmeadows decided they would throw him a party and make it a day to remember.

There were balloons, his long term dialysis friends and even a Bob the Builder cake to celebrate the occasion!

“I had the best day ever! Such loving and caring people,” Bob says.

“The dialysis team are excellent!”

The past year has been an outstanding success for Northern Health, and the Annual Meeting followed by the Open Board Meeting, was a great opportunity to hear more about the year’s achievements and to discuss strategies for the future.

Board Chair, Jennifer Williams AM, opened the Annual Meeting by commending Northern Health for the continued improvement of quality and access to services during a period of sustained increase in demand.

Our Chief Executive, Siva Sivarajah, highlighted that Northern Health’s services are underpinned by our commitment to patient safety and improving the patient experience. Over the last three years, we have significantly improved access to emergency, elective surgery and outpatient care, with continual growth in the number of patients we serve each year.

Our emergency department at Northern Hospital Epping continues to be the busiest in Victoria, providing care to almost 100,000 patients in the last year.

It was acknowledged that these wonderful achievements wouldn’t be possible without the dedicated efforts and skills of our wonderful staff and volunteers. Northern Health employs over 5,000 staff, 70% of whom live in our catchment area and reflect the rich diversity of our community.

The Open Board Meeting commenced with a discussion about the patient experience, led by Jodie Ashworth – Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer. The approach included challenging us to change our mindset from, “what’s the matter?” to “’what matters to you?”

The meeting was also an opportunity to engage with staff and consumers about our plans for the future, with an initial discussion about our new strategic plan, led by Simon Keating –  Chief Strategy, Business and Development  Officer.

Valuable feedback given at the Open Board Meeting was a great way to understand what really matters to our patients and our community, so we can continue to provide trusted care, now and into the future.

This week, Cancer Council Victoria launched a new campaign raising awareness about the link between sugary drinks and obesity, as well as certain cancers.

A shocking advert showing toxic fat inside a patient’s body was featured as part of the campaign video.

Amy Johns, Northern Health Clinical Dietician, says there are a large number of overweight and obese clients seen at Craigieburn Health Service every day.

“I complete one-to-one individualised nutrition counselling sessions and find that sugar-sweetened beverages make up a large part of people’s diets nowadays,” she says.

“These sugars are hidden in drinks and are high in kilojoules (i.e. calories) which lead to weight gain and obesity.”

If you consume one can of soft drink every day for a year, it is estimated you will gain approximately 6.75 kilograms.

The rise in sugary drink consumption, especially amongst children, has led staff at Craigieburn Health Service to take action, creating their own ‘Rethink your drink’ display.

The visual display shows different soft drinks and the amount of sugar they contain in clear bags.

“A 600mL bottle of regular Coca Cola, for example, contains 16 teaspoons of sugar. You wouldn’t eat 16 teaspoons of sugar, so why would you drink it?” Amy says.

The eye-opening display is receiving great feedback from staff and parents.

“If you don’t see the sugar visually like that, you just don’t know it’s there!”

Welcome to Paediatric Week – where we celebrate the paediatric population within our community and those presenting to Northern Health.

The week will focus on education and awareness amongst our dynamic nursing staff who look after children across several departments.

Educational sessions and skill stations will be held at Northern Hospital Epping, showcasing the diversity of paediatrics within Northern Health and ways to improve and promote healthcare delivery.

Pamela Perera, Paediatric Clinical Nurse Educator, encourages all staff with an interest in paediatric nursing to attend.

“These sessions will help staff to build knowledge and exposure in the management of our paediatric patients,” she says.

Themed days will also run throughout the week encouraging all departments to get involved and embrace their inner child. Yesterday, staff marked the occasion by having a crazy hair day.

Pamela says the paediatric nursing educating team assists in professional development of our nurses across Northern Health, to provide excellence in paediatric care.

“Collaboration with education teams and departments has demonstrated active participation in paediatrics, and has ultimately standardised the care provided across our organisation,” she says.

We encourage staff to celebrate the world of paediatrics, and in the wise words of Dr Suess – “be kind to your small person friends.”

Please click here for the full event schedule.

This week is Occupational Therapy (OT ) Week, where we celebrate the wonderful work of our occupational therapists in helping people at all stages of life reach their potential.

Occupational Therapy is a client-centred health profession concerned with promoting health and wellbeing through therapeutic interventions.

It assists with returning function to patients who have experienced a specific event such as injury or illness.

Northern Health employs more than 60 occupational therapists who work in inpatient, ambulatory (outpatient) and community settings, providing services to all ages from newborns to seniors.

Associate Director, Allied Health – Occupational Therapy, Sue Pike, is thankful to be part of such a hard working team.

“I am extremely appreciative to work with such a dedicated and flexible team of occupational therapists, who not only provide excellent care to their patients, but also support one another and work collaboratively with their colleagues,” she says.

Grade 3 occupational therapist, Tameeka Robertson, also feels the same.

“I have been an OT at Northern Health for seven years and it is the team members that I work with that keep me coming back for more,” she says.

For more information about Northern Health Occupational Therapy please click here.

This week we are encouraging staff to ‘Think Pink’, focus on breast cancer, and its impact on those affected in our community.

Breast cancer remains the most common type of cancer among Australian women (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer).

On average, 8 people die of breast cancer every day. The risk of being diagnosed with cancer by age 85 is 1 in 8 for women.

However survival rates continue to improve, with 89 out of every 100 women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer now surviving five or more years beyond diagnosis.

Northern Health Breast Care Nurse, Cheryl Murray, would like staff to take time this week to be breast aware.

“If you haven’t started breast screening – start it now!” she said.

Cheryl encourages all departments to participate in the ‘Pink Up Your Door’ competition and get creative:

“The most creative door will win a $100 Coles Myer Gift Card!”

For more resource material and additional information on how you can support breast cancer awareness, visit the ‘Pink up your door’ page on Northern Health’s intranet.

Cheryl left us with this thought -“1 in 8 women in Australia will get breast cancer. That’s something to pink about!”

Look Good Feel Better is a workshop run by the Cancer Patients Foundation, helping to improve the wellbeing and confidence of people undergoing treatment for cancer. Over the ten years the workshop has been running at Northern Health, it has supported over 350 patients with cancer. Watch below to discover one patient’s story.

This week, Northern Health hosted an Emergo exercise.

Emergo is a mass casualty simulation exercise facilitated by the Department of Health and Human Services and Ambulance Victoria to evaluate an organisation’s incident management systems, disaster preparedness and resilience.

The simulated ‘code brown’ disaster was a train crash on the Epping line, including a fire and suspected terrorist involvement.

Over the duration of the exercise, Northern Health received 121 casualties into the emergency department, with some managed in emergency, others referred to ICU and theatre, and some being transferred to other health services.

The simulation included complexities involving resources, such as running out of ventilators and blood.

A full Incident Management Team was formed, and functioned throughout the entire exercise.

Clinical staff and support services were based on the third floor of Northern Centre for Health Education and Research (NCHER) and worked through the triage, transfers, admission, care and discharge for each of the ‘patients’ which were presented relentlessly by Ambulance Victoria.

The exercise also involved the preparation and provision of media releases and a press conference, with Chief Medical Officer, Dr Alison Dwyer, as the spokesperson.

The simulation was followed by a formal debrief session with staff and Emergo facilitators.

The Northern Health facilitator of the event, Jason Cirone, said we received very positive feedback on our performance, and expressed his appreciation to all staff who were involved.

“The Emergency Planning Committee would like to thank everyone involved in the planning and all those who participated on the day.”

“The exercise has reinforced our critical incident management systems and processes, and our confidence in managing a real external disaster,” he said.