Chief Executive COVID-19 update: 8 October – A refresher on COVID-safe practices

A refresher on COVID-safe practices

As of today, we have:

• 83 COVID-19 positive patients
• Three employees with COVID-19
• 197 employees in precautionary quarantine

While we focus on the rapid changes and adjustments we are making to keep pace with the increasing number of COVID-positive patients we are caring for, we need to make sure we don’t forget the basics.

These measures have been shown to aid in limiting the spread of COVID-19 and remain an essential part of our defence against this virus.

Please take the time to refresh yourself on this material – getting the basics right saves lives.

• Do not come to work if you are unwell
• Complete your attestation mindfully each day
• Wear your mask correctly at all times
• Observe physical distancing
• Maintain good hand hygiene
• Check into shared spaces with QR codes
• Follow the guidance about number limits in shared spaces.

Stay home if you are unwell

Please stay home if you are unwell. Particularly if you have any of the symptoms of COVID-19:

• fever
• coughing
• sore throat
• shortness of breath

Other symptoms can include runny nose, acute blocked nose (congestion), headache, muscle or joint pains, nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting, loss of sense of smell, altered sense of taste, loss of appetite and fatigue.

Each day you come to work on any one of our sites, you are asked to check in using the employee attestation. This has no doubt become second nature now. But please do this check in mindfully each time and read the questions carefully to ensure you don’t run the risk of bringing COVID-19 into a Monash Health site.

Mask wearing – it goes over the nose!

A topic that repeatedly comes up in our employee forums is the complaint that people are not wearing their masks properly. If we ask people entering our health service to wear masks properly, we need to do it ourselves.

Masks must be worn (correctly) as a condition of entry to our sites.

You can take your mask off when eating or drinking – if you are stationary. Walking through our sites with your mask on your chin while drinking or eating is not OK.

When eating or drinking, you should also maintain a physical distance of 1.5 metres from others and practise good hygiene. Replace your mask as soon as possible afterwards.

Anyone 12 years and over must wear a fitted face mask covering the nose and mouth whenever they leave their home, unless a lawful exemption applies. Very few lawful exemptions to mask-wearing apply at Monash Health.

We’ve developed material to help with conversations with patients or visitors who are not wearing masks as requested, which also covers the potential lawful exemptions. Please download and use this content in your area as required.

Physical distancing

We know the spread of COVID-19 is accelerated through face-to-face contact. One of the ways we reduce the risk is keeping 1.5 metres between yourself and others.

In a clinical setting, where you may be working with or caring for someone in close physical proximity, you will be wearing the appropriate level of PPE for the risk.

Once you leave that setting and at all other times, the 1.5 metre distance should be applied. So if you are going to grab a coffee or sitting in a meeting room, even with your mask on, please maintain the appropriate distance.

Resources are available for your area to reinforce this message.

Hand hygiene – before and after, every time

We have just released a new hand hygiene campaign to reinforce the crucial nature of following the five moments of hand hygiene, regardless of whether we are in a pandemic – it is a fundamental part of the way we work. Hand hygiene is one of our strongest protections in reducing the risk of healthcare-associated infections.

There are new posters available for your area. If you would like a refresher, please review the Monash Health Hand Hygiene procedure on PROMPT.

Checking into shared spaces

Just as you would use QR codes to check into venues such as supermarkets and cafés across the state, you need to apply the same principles internally and across our sites.

Please use the QR codes consistently in all shared spaces – including change rooms, break rooms, office spaces, meeting rooms, on-site cafés, and fleet cars. It only takes 30 seconds of your time and helps everyone.

If you find a space without a QR code poster, you can request one.

What about cafés on-site?

You will notice that at all of our on-site cafés, furniture may have been stacked or chairs and tables moved to allow for the correct 1.5m social distancing.

Please do not move this furniture as it places our suppliers in a difficult situation when they are applying the COVID-safe rules for hospitality.

Just as when we are out locally, cafés are where we go to pick up takeaway food and drink. Outdoor eating spaces are available but, at this time, cafés cannot become pseudo meeting places.

Our Capital team are looking at options to create more outdoor spaces. In some very good news, the team has just opened the outdoor terrace area opposite the main lecture theatre at Monash Medical Centre, Clayton, as an outdoor eating space. All employees have swipe card access to this space, just as you will with the outdoor courtyards near Mr Clayton’s.

When you use these spaces, please adhere to the QR code and social distancing requirements in operation and leave the furniture where you find it.  Resources are available to reinforce this message.

Mandatory vaccination – act by 15 October 2021

I sent an update on Friday about the Chief Health Officer’s direction on mandatory vaccination for healthcare workers. In line with this commitment, all Monash Health employees are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to continue working in our health service. More information will be available for you soon, to help make sure we meet the deadlines and answer your questions.

Vaccination is the best protection against serious illness and death from COVID-19. Particularly while rates of vaccination in the community remain short of the critical benchmarks set in modelling, and maybe even after that, vaccination will work in conjunction with these basic public health measures outlined above.

Whether we work in clinical or support roles, we have a responsibility of care to the community we serve. Others in the community look to us to set the standard. We cannot care for and protect others if we do not first care for and protect ourselves.

Thank you.

Andrew Stripp
Chief Executive