Message from the Chief Executive Deb Willcox
It has been so wonderful to see our community return to a life outside of COVID-19 restrictions, while also maintaining those all-important COVID-safe behaviours. Chatting to those of you I have seen, it has been great to hear many of you have been able to see loved ones and spend your time away enjoying usual activities. Part of that return to normality has been some relaxation in our visitor policy, allowing up to two visitors per patient per day - so long as they are fully vaccinated and wear a surgical mask. I know for many of you, it was challenging looking after your patients’ health and wellbeing while their loved ones could not come and visit; but feedback on the new rules has been very positive and I know our community is grateful for all of your efforts. Thankfully, COVID-19 case numbers in the NSW community, especially northern Sydney, remain stable, with high vaccination rates meaning people are largely avoiding hospitalisation and our ICUs. Staff understandably have questions about third doses of COVID-19 vaccine and the government has made a number of announcements about this. Our operations team is working hard to make sure our healthcare staff and immunocompromised people have timely and easy access to their third dose. I will keep you updated as more information becomes available and will have experts attend one of our regular live CE updates to answer all of your questions.
normal, one that will return later than planned is the Exceptional People Awards, which has been postponed until February 25 next year. While it is disappointing we have to wait a little longer to get together, it does hopefully mean we can invite as many of those nominated as possible to the event and celebrate your excellent work. All of the nominations already received will carry over to next year and further information on submitting additional nominations will be made available in January. Finally, I want to say a huge congratulations to the Royal North Shore Hospital Emergency Department, which has been announced as the 2021 Australasian Emergency Department of the Year by the College of Emergency Nursing Australasia. The ED team at RNS has played a crucial role throughout the pandemic, while also piloting a domestic and family violence routine screening project with the NSW Ministry of Health and University of Melbourne and maintaining its stellar commitment to staff development and education during challenging times. Congratulations to each and every one of you on this award.
Deb Willcox Chief Executive Northern Sydney Local Health District
While lots of activities have returned to
NSLHDNEWS | ISSUE 20 | 29 OCTOBER 2021
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