NSLHD News October 28

Health Minister Brad Hazzard, NSW Health Secretary Elizabeth Koff, Cameron Priest, Emily MacNaught, Abbey Van Vuuren, Karen Lawrence, Eveline Staub, Kay Hyman (Nepean Blue Mountains LHD Chief Executive), Stewart Dowrick (Mid North Coast LHD Chief Executive)

NSLHD wins big at NSW Health Awards Northern Sydney Local Health District scooped two top honours at the recent NSW Health Awards. Professor Margaret Fry and oncology nurse practitioner Meredith Oatley took out the Transforming Patient Experience category with their Oncology Telephone Hotline, while neonatology staff specialist Dr Eveline Staub and her NICU colleagues took out the Patient Safety First category for their project Walking the Milky Way. The Oncology Helpline gives patients living with cancer and their families telephone access to expert clinical advice so they can avoid coming to hospital when they are experiencing symptoms from their treatment or condition or simply feeling overwhelmed. It resulted in an 11 per cent reduction in cancer patients having to come into the Emergency Department for treatment.

Eveline and the NICU have developed an improved feeding regime for premature babies that means central lines are removed sooner. This has led to zero central line infection rates in the NICU at RNSH. The two triumphs come after four nominations from the district, beating out stiff competition from across NSW. Other nominations from NSLHD included Pavin Govinda and Laura Brain’s entry Contagious Innovation – Fighting Influenza with FluPortal in the A Safe and Healthy Workplace category and Professor Sarah Hilmer and team’s Electronic Support for Medication Review in Older People in the Health Research and Innovation category. CE Deb Willcox said she was proud of the winners and the nominees, not just for the award but also for striving to deliver the very best in patient care. “All of our entrants and certainly our winners rose to the top of almost 200 entries from across NSW Health because the care and complete focus for patients and their wellbeing stood out so strongly,” she said. “I am so deeply proud of all of the entrants and our winners, and I know the winners and nominations are but a snapshot of the incredible work done every day across this LHD.” Both winners also claimed top billings at the inaugural NSLHD Quality and Improvement Awards earlier this year. The QI Awards will return in 2020, hopefully to help shape more winning NSW Health Award entries.

NSW Health Secretary Elizabeth Koff, Parliamentary Secretary for Health Natasha Maclaren-Jones, Professor Margaret Fry, Meredith Oatley, Susan Pearce (NSW Health Deputy Secretary)

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