Chief Executive COVID-19 Update: 3 September

As of today, we have:

• One COVID-19 positive inpatient
• No employees with COVID-19
• 146 employees in precautionary quarantine

COVID-19 case numbers in Victoria are increasing, and we are seeing more cases emerge in the community around Monash Health. We are also encountering increasing non-compliance with COVID-19 measures such as mask use and isolation.

As a result of this, and the infectious nature of the Delta variant, the course of the virus is progressing faster than previously. This means we need to sharpen our focus and prepare to deal with an increase in COVID-19 hospitalisation.

To help you stay across the COVID-19 situation, this update will now be dedicated solely to COVID-19 and separated from other organisational news.

N95s and eye protection are now required for patient-facing employees
In response to increased case numbers, we have updated our PPE Compulsory Standards.

These changes are effective from 1pm, Saturday 4 September:

• All employees in patient-facing areas must now wear an N95 mask and eye protection when treating COVID-19 negative patients.
• Employees working in food preparation areas must wear a surgical mask and eye protection or an N95 and eye protection if entering patient-facing areas.

All contact with suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients is to be in Tier 3 PPE.

Your manager will supply N95s.

It is inevitable that in the rollout of additional PPE requirements, we will identify some issues. Please work collaboratively with your colleagues, so we can resolve any problems before receiving increased numbers of COVID-19 patients.

Clayton to become a designated (streaming) campus for adult and paediatric COVID-19 patients
Monash Medical Centre is currently a preferred site for the provision of obstetric services to COVID-19 positive patients.

From mid next week, we will expand this support and become a preferred health service for the care of COVID-19 positive adult patients and paediatric patients at Clayton.

Planning is underway, and we will share more information as it becomes available.

Keeping our teams safe and operational
In order to minimise the risk of exposure and furloughing of entire teams, I have asked our General Managers and DCOs to work towards implementing team ‘bubbles’ where practicable. This approach, previously used successfully in Allied Health, involves dividing teams into smaller units, which work separately – thereby reducing the chance of an entire team being out of action.

Allied Health will begin implementing clinical and meal break bubbles from today. Further details are below.

Further details for other areas will follow as work plans are developed.

Dandenong Hospital exposure
You will be aware that a patient cared for at Dandenong Hospital tested positive for COVID-19 last week.

Rapid contact tracing determined that 306 employees were in the exposure locations during the times of concern.

• 122 people are primary close contacts, and all have returned a negative first test.
• 184 Tier 2 exposures, 182 results are back are all negative.
• All patients on the ward have returned negative tests.

We’re not clear yet, but it’s a very promising start. My thanks to everyone involved and, in particular, those directly impacted.

Vaccination targets
More generally, the Premier has set a first dose vaccination target of 70 per cent by 23 September. As healthcare workers, we need to aim much higher. Overwhelming evidence has shown that vaccination prevents serious illness, hospitalisation and death. We see this internationally and closer to home in NSW, where the majority of those in critical care are unvaccinated.

I am asking you again to lead the way – to get vaccinated if you are not already and encourage others to do the same.

Family Vaccination Clinic
I’m pleased to share that we have opened a dedicated clinic at Monash Medical Centre to deliver Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines to household members of employees. As with Phase 1a of the vaccine rollout, vaccinations will initially be available to household members of employees at the highest risk of contracting COVID-19.  As further vaccine supply becomes available, we will expand the household member eligibility criteria. You can read more about the process and how to book here.

Thank you for your commitment to looking after our community and each other.

Andrew Stripp
Chief Executive

Key messages

Change to AstraZeneca vaccine dose intervals
The Department of Health has advised of a change to the interval between AstraZeneca vaccine doses, to support as many Victorians being fully vaccinated as soon as possible.

Effective immediately, the interval between Dose 1 and Dose 2 of the AstraZeneca vaccine will reduce from 12 weeks to six weeks in state-run vaccination centres. This will apply both to people making new AstraZeneca bookings and those with existing Dose 2 bookings will be able to bring their booking forward.

Professor Sharon Lewin AO shares her insights
It was timely that we were joined this week by Professor Sharon Lewin AO, Director of the Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, at our employee forum to discuss how the Institute’s modelling is helping to define the path for opening up in Australia.

When discussing the importance of vaccinations, she noted how vital achieving that 70-80% vaccination rate in Australia will be to our transition. Moving from a lockdown response to one that sees us safely open up without burdening our health service is the plan, but only possible with the support of the community.

Employees who also work at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Goulburn Valley Health may return to work at Monash Health

Due to the progress in contact tracing around these outbreaks and the number of negative test results received, our Infection Prevention team has advised that it is now timely for employees to return to Monash Health once they have received a negative swab. Please note that the negative result must not be more than 48 hours prior to your return to work.

Healthcare Workers staying in frontline accommodation or hotel quarantine
This advice applies to healthcare workers returning to work at Monash Health after spending time in frontline accommodation or hotel quarantine.

• Healthcare workers in frontline accommodation can return to work as soon as they are released from isolation.
• Healthcare workers in hotel quarantine as an international arrival must not work at Monash Health for 14 days from the date they left the hotel and must return a negative swab in the 48 hours before starting work.

Paid leave to attend a COVID-19 vaccination appointment  
The Victorian Government has announced that public health employees will be entitled to time off without loss of pay to receive their COVID-19 vaccination, to encourage all employees to get vaccinated.

Where vaccinations are or have been provided by Monash Health on-site, time-release will only be provided to attend that on-site service, and the paid time off for up to four hours (or equivalent payment) does not apply. Find out which Kronos codes to use and read more here.

Extended COVID-19 emergency workforce – including Allied Health employees and students
Recent announcements, and the latest outbreak, have seen increased demand for COVID-19 vaccination, testing, and contact tracing across Victoria. The professional groups able to work in these areas under these emergency orders are likely to be extended.

Fleet vehicles added to shared spaces check-ins 
You must now check-in when using fleet vehicles using the Victorian Government’s QR code service. This quick and easy process is the same one used across the state. Visit the shared spaces page on the COVID-19 employee website for more information.

Employee COVID-19 Hotline hours extended   
The Employee COVID-19 Hotline has extended its hours from 7am – 8pm to help answer any questions or concerns you may have about your health as a result of COVID-19.

The hotline is a service for Monash Health employees, volunteers and consumer advisors and is available to call from any Monash Health campus, from home, or off-site.   If you are calling externally, please dial (03) 9594 5815. For internal calls, dial extension 45815.

Allied Health clinical and meal break bubbles
In order to minimise the risk of exposure and potential furloughing of Allied Health Clinicians, Allied Health bed-based services (excluding Monash Children’s Hospital and Mental Health) are returning to clinical and meal break bubbles.

This is balanced with the need to continue to provide a clinical service, so some smaller professions are unable to bubble in the same way, and some professions may work remotely where feasible and practical to do so.

The key points are as follows:

• Allied Health will revert to ward-based staff allocations where possible (rather than unit-based allocations).

• Social Work will balance working remotely and on-site, providing as much clinical contact as possible, virtually.

• Where clinical service provision requires clinicians to cross wards/sites, clinicians will be allocated so that ward/site movement is minimised as much as possible, e.g., Podiatry, Speech Pathology and weekend staff. Movement will be tracked via our activity reporting.

• All meetings (e.g., case conferences, handovers, board meetings) will be on Webex, and no Allied Health clinician will attend face to face.

We are commencing a transition of the ‘bubble’ model in Allied Health today and aim to be fully implemented by Monday 6 September.