Message from the

Chief Executive

Above: Michel Lok, Health Service Chief Executive

Welcome back to a new year. I hope everyone is recharged after the Christmas break. Congratulations to the staff who received length of service awards in December. They are among many who have dedicated years to providing our Queensland communities with a continuity of service that is very important in helping us to improve the quality of health care in our region.Regards

MichelMichel LokHealth Service Chief Executive

You-Me-HealthTorres and Cape Hospital and Health Service Newsletter - January 2017

Cooktown staff were among many to receive length of service

recognition certificates.

Above: Minister for Health and Ambulance Services, Cameron Dick; Debi Dean (Nurse Manager, Telehealth - South); Julie O’Brien (Director of Nursing and Midwifery, Weipa IHS); and Michael Walsh (Director-General).

Congratulations to the Telepharmacy Project Team, which were finalists in the 2016 Queensland Health Awards for Excellence.Telepharmacy did very well to be recognised so highly considering there were over 200 submissions from across Queensland. The team was nominated by the Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Board Safety and Quality Committee.

Telepharmacy Finalists

Team members include Chris Braithwaite (Pharmacist), Fiona Hall (Allied Health Professional Leader), Julie Smith (Line Manager Director of Nursing), Alex Dunn (Medical Superintendent, Weipa Integrated Health Service) and Debi Dean (Telehealth Nurse Manager).The team has created a new service model using Telehealth to allow pharmacists to provide Home Medical Reviews (HMR) to patients in facilities in our Southern Sector.The team has proven Telepharmacy to be safe, effective and acceptable to patients. It is also more cost-effective than traditional models and applicable to other health services. The Telepharmacy Project provides medication reviews via videoconference to patients who have been identified to have complex or extensive medicine regimes or have recently been discharged from hospital.

Above: Staff from Cooktown (top of page), Weipa (left) and Cairns (right) were among the many who received length of service awards.

2 Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service Newsletter - YOU-ME-HEALTH - January 2017

Seated from left: Ms Tracey Jia, Dr Ruth Stewart, Mr Bob McCarthy (Chair) and Cr Kaz Price. Standing from left: Cr Ted (Fraser) Nai, Dr Scott Davis, Mr Horace Baira, Mr Greg Edwards and Mr Brian Woods.

News from the Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Board

Summary of Board Meeting DecemberTorres and Cape Hospital and Health Service (TCHHS) Board members met on Thursday Island on 1 December and the following matters were among those discussed: • The Board strongly supported the Health Worker Training Program and looks forward to future updates on the progress of the TCHHS Health Workers. • The draft Transition to Community Control Action Plan was presented to the Board and was approved in principle with further amendments to be made. The Action Plan was circulated to the Board out of session before the Christmas closure which ensured appropriate correspondence was provided the Minister.• The Executive General Manager South provided a presentation to the Board on the future use of the Weipa old hospital site. The Board supports the use of retained earnings to engage in a

consultant to develop a master plan for the Weipa Hospital sites. • The Board approved the execution of the Intellectual Property (IP) Deed between State of Queensland acting through Queensland Health and the Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service on its provision from Queensland Health.• Work is progressing in the development of a TCHHS Research Strategy.• The first quarter of reporting against the TCHHS Operational Plan was tabled.• The Board noted the preparations and planning undertaken for the planned accreditation review in 2017 and endorsed accreditation of the PHCCs against both sets of Standards.• The Board noted the Department of the Premier and Cabinet’s Agency Planning Requirements for the 2017 planning period.• The Board noted the information provided on the pending transfer of the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service Rural & Remote Child & Youth Mental Health Service to Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service.• Deputy Chair, Dr Ruth Stewart, and Member, Mr Greg Edwards, visited Mer (Murray Island) the day before the Board meeting to inspect the infrastructure needs and meet with staff.

The next Board meeting will be held in Cairns on 16 February 2017 following a strategic planning day with the Executive Management Team.

Above: Deputy Board Chair Dr Ruth Stewart took this stunning photo flying over Mer Island. Spot the shark!

Above: Board members met with staff on Mer (Murray Island).

Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service Newsletter - YOU-ME-HEALTH - January 2017 3

Welcome to TCHHS’s New Nurse Navigators: Keiva Heemi, Rachel Sargeant, Jessica Chenery, Moira Senini, Andrea Brockbank and Berice Murray.Another five Nurse Navigators are funded for 2017 and they will support our program and live in Cooktown, Weipa and Thursday Island.Currently the Nurse Navigators are supporting the staff and communities at Lockhart River, Kowanyama, Aurukun, Pormpuraaw, Coen, Thursday Island, Bamaga and the Outer Islands.The Nurse Navigators aim to support other service providers to:1. Increase attendance for travel and appointments2. Increase telehealth appointments and attendance3. Decrease waitlist times for clients triaged category 1 or 24. Facilitate complex care/needs cases at DON’s / Clinical lead’s discretion5. Coordinate retrieved clients through appropriate health care service away from community, until they return home Please support our new Nurse Navigators as they develop their new roles. Nurse Navigators will be working to make processes easier for local patients and senior staff.

New Nurse Navigators

Above: Berice Murray (left) and Andrea Brockbank in the Northern Sector.

Above from left: Rachel Sargeant, Jessica Chenery and Keiva Heemi in the Southern Sector.

New ENT Project Manager - Susan Jacups

Above: Susan Jacups, ENT Project Manager

Developing a new Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Model of Care is one of Susan Jacups’ priorities as the new ENT Project Manager. Susan will be working alongside Denise Newman (ENT Coordinator) with a view to establish a new ENT Model of Care to improve the referral pathways for Indigenous children in our region.“The new Model of Care will look at how we can facilitate ENT services more easily for our communities”, said Susan.

Due to excessively long surgical wait-times within the standard Queensland Health referral pathway for non-urgent ENT surgery, Torres and Cape HHS recently partnered with CheckUp and Apunipima to give 16 children ENT surgery through the private hospital system. Susan’s role will look at how we can facilitate these sorts of ENT services more routinely.“Indigenous children in remote areas of Australia suffer high rates of ear infections than children living in urban settings,” said Susan. “These infections often don’t respond to routine antibiotic therapy and in many individuals, can lead to hearing loss. Surgery can often the best approach to reduce the risk of long-term hearing loss.”Most recently Susan worked as an epidemiologist at the Primary Health Network. She also has 20 years of experience working in universities including at the Menzies School of Health Research, where she worked with the ‘Ear Team’ analysing data from ear and hearing-health studies.

4 Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service Newsletter - YOU-ME-HEALTH - January 2017

The staff at Thursday Island Hospital were rewarded with a cake and afternoon tea, from the Infection Prevention and Control Unit, following achieving an overall compliance of 81% for their national hand hygiene compliance data.The data is based on the 5 Moments of Hand Hygiene and the staff have been working really hard to increase their compliance and therefore help improve patient outcomes.The Infection Prevention and Control Unit will be looking at enhancing the hand hygiene program next year throughout the Torres and Cape.

TI celebrates hand hygiene achievement

Above: Staff celebrated 81% compliance for hand hygiene practices with an afternoon tea - enjoyed with clean hands.

Above: It’s all in days’ work for one of our retrieval teams on their way to Mer (Murray) Island from the Thursday Island (TI) Hospital helipad. Pictured are Dr Ben O’Leary (former TI Hospital medical superintendent), Dr Marlow Coates (TI Senior Medical Officer) and paramedic Mr David Cameron of Retrieval Services Queensland.

Allied Health Conference

Above: TCHHS Occupational Therapist Catherine Clarke, Allied Health Director Robyn Glynn and Speech Pathologist Lauren Reardon representing the TCHHS (North) on ‘Floral Friday’.

At a recent Allied Health conference in South Australia, Fiona Hall, Allied Health Professional Lead (Southern) presented on improving access to compression garment services through service and workforce redesign for more information at http://qheps.health.qld.gov.au/alliedhealth/html/strategies/compression-garments.htm and Kayte Alexander (Southern) had a poster on Radiographic and ultrasonic practice in the Torres Cape. For more information go to http://qheps.health.qld.gov.au/torres-cape/html/medical-imaging.htm

Above: World AIDS Day. Weipa staff celebrated World AIDS Day with a videoconference update on STIs rates, syphilis and HIV – testing, treatment and prevention methods.

Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service Newsletter - YOU-ME-HEALTH - January 2017 5

The Regional e-Health Project’s Guy Trezise (Clinical Lead) and Caroline Taunton (Principal Business Analyst) visited Wujal Wujal to help understand clinical activities, processes, documentation and systems. “We are visiting a number of remote facilities to understand how we can tailor an e-Health solution to meet everyone’s needs,” said Caroline.The team met with Vince Connellan (DON); Health Workers, Anna Cleary, Alice Tayley and Florence Walker; and nurses Darryl Coulstock and Tanja Hitchman. “We also talked with Kathleen Diprose (Administration Officer) about supporting services and contact with patients,” said Guy, “and met with Suzanne Auld (Operational Officer and Driver) who provided valuable insights including her work as the X-Ray Technician.”Guy and Caroline spoke with many visiting teams for optometry, mental health, child health, women’s health, social work and chronic care.“Everybody contributed and we were able to collect some really valuable information,” said Guy.The team visted Weipa in mid-December.“Getting access to patient information which is stored at different sites takes time consuming phone calls, request forms, photocopying and faxing to access this information,” said Guy. “One benefit of an eHealth solution will be having access to quality information from any site across our region.”

Wujal Wujal news Quality Safety and Risk Unit

The Quality Safety and Risk Unit held their annual team planning workshop in November.

Wujal Wujal PHCC has a new sign: Anna Cleary, Senior Health Worker, consulted with Traditional Owners to obtain their consent to have the waterfall as a back drop for the new sign. Thanks are extended to the Traditional Owners for their support in making this possible.

Regional e-Health Project visits Wujal Wujal

Left to right, back row: Paul Mcguire (Compliance and Risk Coordinator), Leigh Broad (Director Quality Safety Risk Unit), Isobel Moase (Quality Coordinator), Tahlia Murray (Administration Officer), Lisa Parmenter (Business Support Officer) and Tom Meredith (Quality Data Officer)Left to right, front row: Alison Males (A/Patient Safety & Quality Manager), Kathryn Dougherty (Policy and Clinical Document Manager) and Lyndall Finn (Infection Prevention and Control - South)On Screen: Joanne Campbell (Infection Prevention and Control - North)Absent: Louise Woods (Patient Safety Officer – South), Ross Smerdon (Records Management Officer) and Elizabeth Mari (Client Liaison Officer - North)

Three significant bodies of work will be led by the team in 2017:• HHS wide accreditation in September 2017• Accreditation of GP services provided at the Community Wellness Centre, Bamaga Primary Health Care Centre and the TI Primary Health Care Centre in September 2017.• HHS wide implementation of Riskman-4 modules (clinical incident management, OHS incident management, consumer and staff feedback, risk management, and case management).The team is looking forward to working with staff across the health service to achieve these goals in 2017.

6 Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service Newsletter - YOU-ME-HEALTH - January 2017

World AIDS Day Weipa

Please email submissions to: TCHHS-comms-media@health.qld.gov.auPhotos of people need to be accompanied by a signed photo consent form Phone: Heather Robertson: 4226 5974

The Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service respectfully acknowledges the

Traditional and Historical Owners, past and present,

within the lands in which we work.

Submissions

The Weipa crew went all out to highlight World AIDS Day in December. Don’t be shame, be game.

TI staff get socialThursday Island staff celebrated the end of the year in sunset style.