Chief Executive Update – 30 August 2022

Chief Executive Update – 30 August 2022

As of today, we have:   

• 61 COVID-19 positive inpatients
• 48 employees with COVID-19
• 13 employees in precautionary quarantine
• 37 employees who are primary close contacts and working under public health exemption

In this update, we cover: 

• Finalists announced for the 2022 Victorian Public Health Awards
• Release of our Gender Equality Action Plan
• New organisational structure
• Payment dates for the Winter Surge Payment brought forward
• How Monash Health is informing the future of cardiac care
• Monkeypox update
• My Lived iD – supporting the mental health of people living with an intellectual disability
• Where to get vaccinated and tested

This week we continue our cautious resumption of clinical services as we welcome the news that COVID-19 cases across our community, inpatients and employees continue to fall. We are relocating our fast-track Emergency at Dandenong Hospital to the main Emergency Department, and at Moorabbin Hospital, we are separating Wards 1 and 2 while adding a further four general medical beds to Ward 1.

The moves and changes in recent weeks have again demonstrated your ability to adapt to changing circumstances, and I want to thank those involved for their leadership.

We’ll look to build further capacity across our sites in coming weeks, while keeping a close eye on our workforce pressures. We know recruitment remains a major challenge for all professions and industries and recruiting nurses is especially competitive.

I welcome the announcement over the weekend that more than 10,000 students will have the cost of their nursing or midwifery undergraduate studies paid for, while scholarships will be available for those who complete postgraduate studies in specific areas of need.

Hopefully, these incentives encourage more students to consider a career in nursing. We also know we need more nurses now. To help address the immediate need, Monash Health will be represented at a number of overseas nursing recruitment fairs in coming months. The team will be working hard to attract as many overseas nurses and midwives to come to Monash Health as possible. This work supplements our ongoing recruitment campaigns for existing sites and the new Victorian Heart Hospital, that you may have seen on social media.

We are acutely aware of the ongoing strain that workforce pressures are placing on our health service and we will share more details of our workforce plans with you all in coming weeks.

Finalists announced for the 2022 Victorian Public Health Awards

The finalists for the 2022 Victorian Public Healthcare Awards have been announced and we are delighted to have received nominations in six categories, including the prestigious Premier’s Health Service of the Year Award (large).

The work of the Monash Women’s and Newborn program has been highlighted, with three different submissions making it into the shortlist in different categories. This is a major credit to the teams involved and underscores our excellence in the delivery of women’s health, maternity and obstetric services.

The Awards are an annual celebration of excellence and the categories reflect Victoria’s healthcare priorities, and our sector’s ability to drive change and improve health outcomes. You can read more about our nominations here and I congratulate all our Award nominees and finalists. The winners will be announced in October. 

Release of our Gender Equality Action Plan

I am pleased to announce that we have now published our Gender Equality Action Plan.

This plan is the culmination of a great deal of work by the Gender Equality Committee, which is co-chaired by Chief Medical Officer, Associate Professor Anjali Dhulia and Executive Director, Digital Health, Emilio Pozo, with valuable input from stakeholders as well as our Board.

The plan details how we will promote and enhance gender equality in the workplace and demonstrates our commitment to our employees of all gender identities to feel safe, respected, included and treated fairly without bias and discrimination.

At this afternoon’s Employee Forum, A/Prof Dhulia will introduce the plan and speak with Gender Equality Lead, Dr Ashlee Linck, on the next steps for the implementation of this important work.

New organisational structure

Earlier this month, we moved to embed the new organisational structure I first spoke with you about in May. These are changes that will help position us for the future and to be ready for the opportunities and challenges ahead. In many ways they are a natural evolution of earlier planning, combined with what we’ve learnt during the pandemic.

Over recent weeks we have made several key appointments following consultation with the affected teams. You can see the changes, including interim arrangements, reflected in the updated organisational charts available on the intranet.

I look forward to working with our new leaders and with all of you as we look ahead and continue to deliver the best possible care to our community.

Payment dates for the Winter Surge Payment brought forward

As I outlined at last week’s Employee Forum, I’m pleased to confirm that the payment dates for the first instalment of the Winter Surge Payment have been brought forward and have started.   Those on the H pay cycle will have been paid last week (24 August), with N pay cycle being paid in this week’s pay (31 August).

You can find more information about the Healthcare Worker Winter Retention and Surge Payment on the Employee COVID-19 website and we’ll let you know the payment dates for the second instalment as soon as we can. My thanks go to the Payroll team for ensuring that our employees can receive this payment as quickly as possible.

How Monash Health is informing the future of cardiac care

With the construction of Australia’s first Victorian Heart Hospital nearing completion, what better way to continue our video series showcasing our research and academic excellence than with our cardiac clinician-researchers?

Research will be a vital component of the Victorian Heart Hospital and create new and expanded opportunities for medical research, accelerating the transition of discoveries into timely and meaningful outcomes.

You can watch the video to learn how the team’s commitment to discovery, collaboration, and providing the best outcomes for our patients is informing the future of cardiac care.

Monkeypox update

As we have done in recent weeks, we will continue to provide updates on monkeypox. Monkeypox is a disease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus. While the number of cases remains small, at around 120 nationally, we have seen increasing cases and locally acquired transmission in Victoria, including a rise in cases in south east Melbourne in recent weeks.

You can read more about monkeypox here, including the steps to take when caring for a patient with suspected monkeypox.

My Lived iD – supporting the mental health of people living with an intellectual disability

At last week’s Employee Forum we heard from Reece Adams, Head of the Centre for Developmental Disability Health, about My Lived iD, a new website designed to provide people with intellectual disabilities access to the information, resources and healthcare services they need to support their mental health and wellbeing.

If you missed it, you can see Reece speak about this important resource and the co-design process undertaken with members of the disability community to ensure the site was easy to navigate and very user-friendly.

Where to get vaccinated and tested

As we head into the last few days of winter, it’s important that we retain our focus on reducing infection across our health service and looking after our community, patients and each other.

If you are yet to receive your flu vaccination this year, you can walk in at any of our Infection Prevention offices shown here; no bookings are required. Please bring your Medicare card and Employee ID card.

While the COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Monash Medical Centre is now closed, our mobile service is still available for those seeking their winter dose. No bookings are required but please bring your Medicare card.

Full panel PCR testing is also available for symptomatic employees, meaning you can be tested for COVID-19, plus other respiratory illnesses such as influenza. The previous testing site at Wright Street, Clayton, has now closed but testing is now available at 9 Carroll Lane, Dandenong.

Thank you, as always, for the work that you do.

Professor Andrew Stripp
Chief Executive