Simon Doyle, our new Director of Partnerships, has worked at many health services across the country, but he says the people at Northern Health are “particularly forward thinking” in designing how their services are run.

“I love hearing about pockets of innovation in different departments and hearing how passionate our people are about driving improvement. Part of my role is connecting these pockets across the organisation and with other external partners, and it’s great to see ideas become success stories,” Simon said.

Simon has been in the new role since February, but his Northern Health journey began in 2015 as an Emergency Medicine Registrar, after he moved to Australia from the UK. After three years at Northern Health, Simon decided to gain experience in healthcare management. Simon also works part time, one day a week, at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne as an Emergency Medicine Registrar.

“Before starting my role as Director of Partnerships, I worked as a Healthcare Management Consultant. This role took me around Australia and allowed me to be involved in some really progressive work which demonstrated what can be achieved in the public healthcare system,” Simon said.

“I gained experience in all kinds of healthcare management, from process and performance improvement to financial budgeting and strategic planning. I always knew I wanted to come back into healthcare itself, and the opportunity at Northern Hospital came at a perfect time. It’s great to be able to maintain both skillsets. I love the challenges that come with non-clinical roles in a busy health service, but I still love the hands-on patient care.”

“It’s great to be back at Northern Health and it’s fantastic to work with lots of familiar faces. Knowing lots of people made it really easy to transition back into life at Northern Health.”

A typical day for Simon tends to be busy meeting with internal and external stakeholders for a wide variety of projects.

“I meet regularly with partners such as primary health networks to understand how our priorities overlap and to design and deliver on projects that are mutually beneficial, and that help improve our shared patients’ experiences,” Simon said.

“Other partners include tech companies, education facilities, local councils, non-governmental organisations and other health services. The day tends to go very quickly, but it’s great to meet with such a wide variety of people from all kinds of backgrounds.”

Featured image: Simon Doyle, Director of Partnerships

Today is Crazy Socks 4 Docs Day, dedicated to breaking down the stigma around mental health in doctors. On this day, held every year on the first Friday of June, doctors and their colleagues wear their craziest socks to encourage conversations around mental health.

Dr Wanda Stelmach, Chief Medical Officer, said Crazy Socks 4 Docs Day reminds us to pause and think about our inner health, our friends and work mates.

“It’s hard to look after our health with all the pressure of work, but we need to get that balance between work, family and self. Take time each week to pause and reflect, and ask yourself what have you done to nurture yourself? Get together with friends and ask each other the same question! We’re there to support each other,” she said.

For Dr Dean Pritchard, Deputy Director Emergency Department, said Crazy Socks 4 Docs is a day for doctors to reflect on ourselves as humans — ordinary humans who have signed up to do extraordinary things.

“From the heat of resuscitation to the complexity of our wards – we soldier through to achieve the best for our patients. But rarely do we stop to check in on ourselves, heal our wounds, and understand the enormity of our role in patient’s lives,” he said.

This Crazy Socks 4 Docs Day, Dr Pritchard encourages everyone to wear their loudest socks with pride, on the outside.

“Keep doing the amazing work you do, speak up when you’re feeling low, and be there to support your team. Together, we can achieve extraordinary things!”

His colleague, Dr Rachael Coutts, Associate Director, Medical Education and Emergency Physician added: “Crazy Socks 4 Docs is also a day we get to say to our clinical staff – we see and hear you and acknowledge the work you do.” 

Stephen Whittaker, Wellbeing Team Leader, added: “The mental wellbeing of our doctors – and all staff in our health service – is of huge importance to us all at Northern Health. Without it, we cannot be the best we can be to provide the highest quality care needed for our patients. Crazy Socks 4 Docs Day is just one day where we can acknowledge the difficult nature of the work our doctors – and all staff – do at Northern Health. It’s a day where we say thank you for that incredible work and a day where we aim to make conversations about mental health and wellbeing a part of our every day.”

In collaboration with Northern Health Foundation, a local ethical sock manufacturer, ‘Soxy Beast’, generously donated their crazy socks, for the second year in a row.

Giuliano Pietrolungo, Soxy Beast Director, said it is the cause that resonates with his team and motivates the donation.

“We are donating almost 500 pairs of socks this year and we have nothing but admiration for hospital workers, and that was before we added to the mix a global pandemic. We applaud each and every one of you at Northern Health and greatly appreciate what you do. We are happy to be supporting the Crazy Socks 4 Docs Day. We hope that our socks add a bold splash of colour to the day, put smiles on faces and, most importantly, help to raise awareness surrounding the importance of mental health in medical staff,” Giuliano added.

To view the #CrazySocks4Docs gallery and to see the winner of the competition, please click here.

 

Increasingly hospitals are recognising the interaction between health care and environmental degradation and are attempting to break it.

This starts with an awareness around the ‘inputs’ and ‘outputs’ of a hospital i.e. energy, water and consumables go in, greenhouse gas emissions, and waste come out.

The waste coming out of a hospital has impacts on the air, water and land and this, in turn, has impacts on public health, leading to increased health care provision requirements. The cycle goes on.

Reducing the environmental impact our operational activities have on the environment can increase staff morale and ultimately contribute to the health of our community.

Since July last year, Northern Health has recycled 321 kilograms fluorescent tubes, 5,742 kilograms  wooden pallets, (320 actual pallets), 300 kilograms toners, 3,325 kilograms mattresses (119 actual mattresses), 848 kilograms of  PVC, 850 kilograms of Kimguard, 9,409 kilograms of organics, 26,300 kilograms of metal and 16,088 kilograms of e-waste.

Sandra Molinaro, Manager Support Services at Northern Health, says, “To date, this financial year, we are tracking at 37.5 per cent recycling. Northern Health has already diverted 63,683 kilograms from landfill, which is almost double from the previous year. We have had a cost saving of $30,000. In the 2019/20 financial year, we saved $15,000.”

“This has resulted in Northern Health diverting 45 large skips of waste away from landfill and the waste either recycled, donated or repurposed.”

World Environment Day is celebrated annually on 5 June and encourages worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment. This year’s theme is ‘Ecosystem Restoration’.

Northern Health is asking our staff to pledge their support and commitment to minimising waste for at least one day. This can be done by changing your own bin or, better yet, taking your waste home with you, bringing in a reusable coffee mug and remembering to turn off lights and computer when not in use.

Says Sandra, “These small changes can have a big impact!”

Featured image shows Sandra Molinaro with polystyrene boxes awaiting recycling.

Northern Health announced the beginning of our Electronic Medical Record (EMR) program in November 2020.

Since then, the team has been busy designing our EMR clinical workflows with our subject matter experts. Alongside this activity, the team has been collaborating with Public Affairs on a new website designed for staff across Northern Health to access the latest information about our EMR and have one single source of truth for all things EMR.

Today, we are excited to launch this new website: emr.nh.org.au.

Over the journey of our EMR program, you will see information and resources grow. Closer to training in June 2022, you will have access to many learning tools and resources (in addition to links to the LMS).

Wanda Stelmach, Chief Medical Officer and EMR Sponsor, acknowledged the work of the EMR team to bring this website to life.

“I’m so impressed with the engagement of all staff in the EMR project but particularly by the dedication shown by our EMR team, led by Trish Aldridge,” Wanda said.

“Everyone has a real desire to develop an exceptional EMR that addresses our needs. I encourage all staff to visit the new EMR website and add it to your phone. It is an amazing resource and communication portal developed by our own EMR team with your input – well done, EMR team!” Wanda added.

While the team hope that all staff will visit the EMR site, they have also developed content specifically for people who are very involved in the EMR such as subject matter experts, champions and managers.

In coming months, information will be added in preparation for trainers and super users. Thanks to everyone who kindly agreed to be photographed for this new website, as these photos bring the website to life – keep visiting as the team will change these regularly!

Vanessa Reid, Chief Nursing Informatics Officer, is excited about the new site.

“I look forward to using the website and it will be handy to have one trusted, central place to refer staff to the latest information. It will be useful after training too for reference information and support,” Vanessa said.

Click here to head to our Northern Health EMR website!

The Kangaroo Flat Uniting Church Craft Group have knitted up a storm creating beautiful handmade beanies for our newborn babies.

About 300 beanies and other knitted clothing items, blankets and isolette covers have recently been donated to the Birthing Suite and Neonatal Unit (NNU) at Northern Hospital to keep newborn babies warm after birth.

The craft group has been donating baby beanies and isolette covers to Northern Health for more than eight years. Pamela Doherty, Acting Nurse Unit Manager (NUM) Birthing Suite, said the craft group go out of their way to ensure the beanies arrive at the hospital.

“My mother used to live in Bendigo, so the craft group leader would drop items at her house for me to collect. Now that my ties with Bendigo have finished, I thought that would be too hard to retrieve items,” Pamela sad.

“But this was not the case! Lois Bell, the craft leader, organised for a drop off at my brothers house in Geelong. They really have gone to extraordinary lengths to support our newborns and they are fabulous knitters and sewers.”

The beanies are knitted to perfection – they have to be a certain size and cannot have bows on them.

“When babies are born, they drop their temperatures very quickly – they can lose a lot of heat from their head, so having a beanie can help,” said Pamela.

“Especially if premature or underweight, if babies get cold, they get low sugar levels so all their energy is used up staying warm and they require more oxygen – so it doesn’t seem much with a beanie, but simple things make a difference. They are not just to make the babies look good, they are really effective!”

“All of these beanies are beautifully knitted or sewn and are in a beautiful array of colours and patterns.”

Featured image: Newborn baby wearing a beanie made by the Kangaroo Flat Uniting Church Craft Group.

Rain, hail or shine, you can always count on the wonderful traffic controllers to smile, despite being on their feet all day, while directing traffic at our COVID-19 Testing Clinic at the Northern Centre For Health Education and Research (NCHER) at Northern Hospital Epping.

Neil Florence has been a traffic controller at NCHER since October last year, and has become somewhat of a minor celebrity in the last week, often spotted in the background of the numerous television reports from the hospital on our COVID-19 Testing Clinic.

“It’s an interesting job,” Neil said.

“I normally get here about 45 minutes before testing opens. Then we get everything set up for when people do start to arrive. Then the rest of the day we manage the cars in and out of the tents without trying to disrupt the operations, especially the transfer patient area, the dialysis and people going to DPV Health.”

Since the recent COVID-19 outbreak, many community members have chosen Northern Hospital Epping and Craigieburn Centre to get tested for the virus. We have also extended our operating hours to meet the demand to test as many people as possible.

“In these busy times, people sometimes get here an hour beforehand, and most get surprised with the number of people that have already queued. I was talking to a gentleman who first arrived at 5.30 am for an 8 am test, and there are multiple people for testing in some cars,” Neil said.

Neil is employed by the Department of Health to ensure traffic and pedestrian activity runs smoothly at NCHER. He says no two days are the same as a traffic controller.

“We get to know the people here. We now know a lot of the nursing staff by car registration numbers so they just get waved through,” he said.

“I like working here. It’s a nice place. Every day there is something different. People ask if I get bored, but if you are doing your job properly, then you don’t get bored. You have to keep on your toes, keep an eye out for pedestrians and a car that may not know what it’s doing, especially around here.”

Elisha O’Dowd, Acting Project Manager, COVID-19 Clinics and Entry Screening, thanked the dedicated staff assisting with testing more than 5,000 community members over the last week.

“Our nurses, clerical staff, traffic controllers and security personnel have worked tirelessly in the past week to meet the high demands and long hours at our testing sites,” she said.

“They are very experienced now in managing fluctuating demands and face every new challenge with a positive attitude and unshakeable resilience. The public response for being tested has been extraordinary. It is clear the local community understands the importance of being tested, even for mild symptoms and exposure risk. I would sincerely like to thank the public for taking the time to be tested and for being so patient.”

Northern Health urges anyone, even with the mildest of symptoms, to get tested. For more information, visit nh.org.au/coronavirus.

Featured image: Neil Florence directing traffic at NCHER

In response to the current COVID-19 situation in Melbourne, in particular in the northern suburbs, Northern Health has extended vaccination clinic hours and increased staffing to meet current demand and help vaccinate as many community members as possible.

“We have seen a significant increase in vaccination bookings over the last week. We are very pleased people are coming in to be vaccinated and we have seen a large increase over the last week. We have gone from 300-400 people vaccinated per day over the last few weeks to 493 vaccinations on Monday, 590 on Tuesday, 691 on Wednesday and over 800 vaccinations yesterday,” Debra Bourne, Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer explained.

“We have now commenced taking bookings for people aged 40-49, so we encourage anyone in this age group to book in for their vaccination as soon as possible,” Debra added.

This morning, Debra spoke to Neil Mitchell on 3AW on our vaccination program and how we are supporting the community during this most recent COVID-19 outbreak.

Earlier in the week, Neil Mitchell said on his program that Northern Hospital was a model for “how to run things well and efficiently for testing and vaccination.”

Associate Professor Craig Aboltins, Director of Infectious Diseases, was pleased to see the increase in people booking in for their vaccinations.

“It is great to see so many people booking in to have their COVID-19 vaccine. The COVID-19 vaccines we have are safe and are the best way for people to protect themselves, their family and their community from the coronavirus infection. The vaccines not only stop us getting sick, but they also stop us spreading the coronavirus infection to others around us,” he explained.

“The recent cases of coronavirus in Melbourne have reminded us all that this pandemic has not gone away – and the best way out of this situation is for us all to be vaccinated as soon as it is available to us,” Craig added.

The health and safety of our community is our highest priority and our staff are working around the clock to scale up our COVID-19 response to meet the demand during this outbreak.

In addition to our vaccination program ramping up, we have also extended operating hours of our testing clinics at both Northern Hospital Epping and Craigieburn Centre. For more information on our testing clinics, head to nh.org.au/coronavirus.

“We are conducting over 1,100 tests each day at our testing clinics, but there are also many other tests being done through other partners in our area including DPV Health,” Debra said.

“We are really proud of our amazing staff for their quick response and wonderful work in keeping our community safe. They have been doing an incredible job.”

“Thank you to all of the people who have booked in for their vaccinations – and to all of the people who have come forward for testing – you are all playing your part in the fight against COVID-19.”

We take this time to remind everyone to get vaccinated if you are eligible, get tested if you have any symptoms (no matter how mild), keep up hand hygiene and physical distancing practices, and follow all the rules for the current lockdown. We are in this together.

Head to nh.org.au/coronavirus to book your vaccination at our clinic located at Northern Hospital Epping. We are also accepting walk-ins.

Featured Image: Luma Gashi, COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic Nurse Unit Manager and Associate Professor Craig Aboltins, Director Infectious Diseases

National Palliative Care Week 2021 is being marked with the theme ‘Palliative Care It’s more than you think,‘ which seeks to raise awareness about the many benefits of quality palliative care. One of the great myths about palliative care is that it is only a synonym for end-of-life care. It is so much more than that.

Says Barbara Watson, a Registered Nurse in the Palliative Care Unit, “We are very lucky to have a beautiful modern facility to work within at Palliative Care at Northern Health. However it’s what happens inside this structure that we are most proud of.”

Barbara goes onto say, “We have a united team where many of the staff have worked together for years. We come to work knowing we will be supported by management and enjoy the camaraderie of our colleagues.”

“The primary beneficiaries of this philosophy are our patients and their families. Happy staff that present with a positive attitude are willing to give their all and demonstrate unique skills required for Palliative Care. Patients and their loved ones are so appreciative of our care, they frequently provide us with wonderful feedback which assists in sustaining our work efforts.”

“Recently a lovely patient said, “This is a wonderful place, you all get on so well together. It’s a happy place and I feel so well supported.”

Adds Barbara, “Obviously there is great sadness at times when patients are dying and their families are grieving. It can be a difficult time for staff too. However the kindness demonstrated by staff will be long remembered after the actual death. Death is part of life, and to be actively available during this time is an absolute privilege.”

Sentiments echoed by Lorraine, who recently lost her husband Bill.

“My husband Bill  recently passed away at the Palliative Care Unit. Sadly the result of my husband’s stay could only have resulted in the saddest of ways but during that time he was treated by all the staff with respect, caring and dignity.”

“The same respect, caring and concern was afforded to me. We were told that the staff considered that they had two patients in the room – being my husband and myself. Even while my husband was in a coma, the staff talked to him explaining what they would be doing i.e. turning, washing, swabbing his mouth, checking his driver (a device to administer drugs) even shaving him even though he was in a coma.”

“Everything was explained to him beforehand. The staff including Pam the volunteer constantly checked on my husband and myself. Even after my husband passed away, I received calls from Dr Jackie Yoong the oncologist and Pam, checking on my welfare. The whole staff are amazing for their endless compassion to the patients’ and families.”

Alison Giles, Medical Director of Palliative Care, says, “Palliative Care Week is a chance to promote the philosophy of Palliative Care, to accept death and dying as part of life, to celebrate the nurses, doctors, cleaners, administrative staff, volunteers and many others who work so hard to make sad and difficult times that little bit easier, and to celebrate the bravery and wisdom of our patients and their loved ones which we bear witness to on a daily basis”.

Featured image shows the Palliative Care team.