Message from the Chief Executive

In this update, we cover:

• Second vaccination hub opening in Springvale
• One central number for COVID-19 vaccination bookings
• IDAHOBIT yesterday
• Volunteers week
• Expanding our sub-acute capacity at Casey Hospital
• Changes to entry screening
• Flu vaccination reminder
• Lions Club Waverley donation
• Take aim with our Targeted Training BI Dashboard guide
• Curing homesickness
• May Measurement Month

Second vaccination centre opening at Springvale
The second of our high-volume COVID-19 vaccination centres will open at Sandown Racecourse in Springvale tomorrow.

Following the success of our first high-volume centre at the Cranbourne Turf Club, the South East Public Health Unit is expanding its reach and creating more opportunities for the public to have their COVID-19 vaccination.

This new high-volume vaccination will be open 9am to 5pm daily and will accept bookings and walk-ins.

If you have friends or family who have not received a COVID-19 vaccination and live locally to Sandown Racecourse, encourage them to take advantage of this new vaccination centre.

Visit https://sephu.org/covid-vaccination/ for more details.

One central number for COVID-19 vaccination bookings
From Thursday morning (20 May), employee COVID-19 vaccination bookings will be made via the Victorian Government’s central booking line.

You can book your COVID-19 vaccination at any Monash Health clinic by calling the Victorian Government Vaccination Hotline on 1800 675 398 (choose option 1, 1, 1).

I want to take this opportunity to thank and acknowledge the team that has worked so diligently on the Monash Health Employee Vaccination Bookings Line, taking an incredible 42,000 calls from their colleagues and the community between March and May this year. Your effort went a long way to protecting our teams and community against COVID-19.

Read more about how you can book for your COVID-19 vaccination.

Thank you to our Volunteers
This week we celebrate National Volunteer Week, a time to recognise and honour the exceptional contribution of over 400 Monash Health volunteers.

I also thank and acknowledge the contribution of our consumer advisors and 250 volunteers from external organisations, who work to make Monash Health a stronger health service.

I look forward to formally acknowledging our volunteers at a function later this week. If you see our volunteers around our campuses, I encourage you to say hi and join me in thanking them.

International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT)
Yesterday we celebrated IDAHOBIT – a day of awareness and reflection of the ongoing discrimination directed towards the LGBTI+ community. It’s a day of understanding and signals our commitment to providing a place of opportunity and inclusion for those with whom we work.

At yesterday’s event, four guest speakers: Jun Soong, Scott Hili, Jason McMurray, and Blair Salmon, shared their powerful stories and insights. For those of you who were unable to attend or would like to share the event with others, the recorded event can be watched here.

Thank you for your continued hard work.

Andrew Stripp
Chief Executive

Key messages

Expanding our sub-acute capacity at Casey Hospital
We are excited to announce the opening of Ward D at Casey Hospital as a 27-bed subacute ward. This expansion of subacute services will support inpatient bed access across Monash Health through the timely transition of care from acute to subacute.

We want to acknowledge the tremendous efforts by the leadership teams at Casey and Dandenong and all team members involved in the planning and preparation to support this exciting and important addition to our inpatient service.

We warmly welcome the employees who have transitioned with the subacute service to Casey Hospital. We look forward to delivering outstanding patient care and exceptional patient experience.

Changes to screening for visitors, carers, support people, contractors and ambulatory patients
From Thursday, 20 May, visitors, carers, support people, contractors, and ambulatory patients will use the Victorian Government QR Code Service to check in each time they visit one of our Clayton sites (MMC, MCH and MHTP).

The Victorian Government QR Code Service and the related Service Vic App collect contact data to help contact tracers contain COVID-19 outbreaks. It replaces the existing Monash Health online visitor registration and the contractor paper-based form currently in use.

The transition to the Victorian Government QR Code Service will take effect at our other sites progressively.

All check-in data is housed in secure databases managed by Service Victoria. Unless Department of Health contact tracers request data for COVID-19 contact tracing purposes, it is automatically deleted after 28 days.

There are no changes to employee screening or attestations. Please remain vigilant, don’t attend work if you are unwell, and pay careful attention when completing your daily attestation.

Help give flu the flick with our free flu vaccination program
Vaccinating against flu protects you, your family, our patients and the wider community. Monash Health offers free flu vaccination to all employees, and we encourage you to participate. Please remember to leave two weeks between your COVID-19 and flu vaccinations.

If you have received your flu vaccination elsewhere or are not participating, you must complete the Flu Declaration. More information and details of where you can get your flu vaccination can be found here.

Take aim with our Targeted Training BI Dashboard guide
Need some help accessing and using Power BI to find, monitor and report on targeted training? We’ve developed a new and easy to follow Power BI Targeted Training Dashboard’ Quick Reference Guide (QRG).

From how to access Power BI to filtering by course, program, cost centre and/or occupational groups, our new QRG will help you find reports and dashboards to identify and monitor targeted training.

Get a free blood pressure check during the month of May
As part of May Measurement Month, the Hudson Institute of Medical Research and Monash Health are partnering to offer free blood pressure checks between Monday 17 – Friday 21 May (11am to 2pm each day).

May Measurement Month is a worldwide initiative dedicated to raising awareness about the dangers of high blood pressure and the importance of regular checks. Learn more. 

Curing Homesickness campaign benefits Monash Children’s Hospital
Patients of Monash Children’s Hospital are set to benefit through some new specialist physiotherapy equipment, thanks to a recent campaign at Coles. Over a two-week period, Coles customers in Victoria donated $264,350 by purchasing Curing Homesickness cards and buying “Mum’s Sause” branded products.

Thank you to the Lions Club of Waverley
Last week Monash Health Foundation welcomed members of the Lions Club of Waverley to thank them for their latest donation to Monash Children’s Hospital.

The recent gift was $15,000 to purchase nine mobile diagnostic sets, with each set including an ophthalmoscope and an otoscope. The sets have been allocated to wards across Monash Children’s Hospital in Clayton and the satellite sites at Casey Hospital and Dandenong Hospital.