The festive season is fast approaching and we understand many of you will be looking to decorate your wards and units.
While restrictions may have eased over the past couple of months, it’s important to remember the importance of good hand hygiene practices and frequent cleaning of shared surfaces to reduce contamination in the healthcare environment.
To help you celebrate safely this year, we’ve put together a helpful set of tips for you and your team to refer to when decorating.
- Keep ward decorations to reach height only (low ceilings or above doors) and avoid any areas easily accessed by employees and the public. Please note that the Engineering team will not be able to provide ladders for decorating
- Avoid using decorations that shed glitter, tinsel or other materials such as branches or leaves
- Avoid the use of sticky tape on walls, windows, floors or other building surfaces
- Aim to use decorations that can be easily cleaned
- Ensure any Christmas Tree lights are turned off no later than 10pm each night
- Arrange for any electrically operated decorations (e.g., lights) to be tested and tagged by the Engineering team before use
- Avoid placing decorations on surfaces which require frequent cleaning
- Be sure to use battery-operated candles only, not those with a real flame
- If using hanging decorations such as streamers, ensure they do not obstruct any fire sprinklers or important signage and keep them away from air conditioning registers and vents
- Ensure any trees or decorations do not block any fire egress routes or doors
- Clean your decorations and store when dry
We also know many teams will be looking forward to getting together to enjoy well-deserved celebrations.
This year, with COVID-19 cases still in the community, we must continue to keep safety in mind. Our 100% vaccination status provides excellent protection, but it is not a guarantee that you will not get or transmit COVID-19. We also need to be mindful that many of our patients are not vaccinated as yet.
There are a number of steps you can take to help ensure everyone remains safe when planning your event – you can find these in this Chief Executive update.
Thank you for keeping yourself, your colleagues, and the community safe.
Approved by Michael Holman, Professor Rhonda Stuart and Anna Laird.