Regional Review Issue 1 | Spring 2022
Loddon Mallee Shared Services
Loddon Mallee Public Health Unit
Department of Health update
In this issue
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Message from the Secretary of the Victorian Department of Health, Euan Wallace Introduction to the inaugural edition of Loddon Mallee Network’s Regional Review. Message from the Chair of Loddon Mallee Health Network, Peter Faulkner
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8 Loddon Mallee Health Network 10 Protect yourself from mosquito-borne disease 11 Virtual Care Office for the Loddon Mallee
Acknowledgement of Country Loddon Mallee Health Network acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land upon which we work, including Dja Dja Wurrung, Yorta Yorta, Barapa Barapa, Wemba Wemba, Latje Latje and Taungurung and pays respects to Elders both past and present. Loddon Mallee Health Network also pays respects to All Aboriginal Nations of Victoria and their Stories, Traditions, waterways, plants, animals and Country.
Family violence is a health issue
Message from The Secretary, Victorian Department of Health It’s a real privilege to share a few words in this inaugural edition of Loddon Mallee Health Network’s regional newsletter. I’m so pleased to see the network finding another way to share news and knowledge, and create connections. Informing a vision for a safer and more effective National Health Service (NHS), in a review of 14 NHS Trusts nearly 10 years ago, British surgeon Sir Bruce Keogh said, “No hospital, however big, small, or remote, [should] be an island. Professional, academic and managerial isolation will be a thing of the past.” The last couple of years have certainly tested the mettle of our health sector. But they’ve also revealed what can be achieved when health service providers at all levels come together, determined to build those bridges. There is one single reason for doing this; the patient. Better collaboration and coordination across the sector is better for the people we care for. But don’t take my word for it. Warwick is a Loddon Mallee resident who ended up in hospital in Melbourne during the height of the pandemic. Here’s what he had to say about his experience: “One of our friends – a nurse at Swan Hill District Health – told us about the Hospital in the Home service … and within days I was home and being visited by the nurses.
The Loddon Mallee Health Network was the vision of a number of passionate, patient- focussed health service CEOs throughout the Loddon Mallee who were driven by the possibilities created by working together more formally - we knew we would be better together.
LMHN Regional Review | Issue 1 | Spring 2022
“[The Nurse Unit Manager] and the doctor co- ordinated everything – I went straight from St Vincent’s to my home in Swan Hill … didn’t even have to go through the hospital at Swan Hill again. Not that I would have minded – they are all wonderful at the hospital. It was just quicker, easier and less hassle to be allowed to go straight home. “…[over Christmas] we had a house full. The family came from Singapore, Sydney, all over the place. It was a joyful time for me to be at home. I might have missed all that if I was still in hospital. I’m sure it [being home] helped my wellbeing.” Without collaboration between the hospital, health service and many staff, Warwick wouldn’t have been able to welcome family from far and wide to his home. He would have missed a joyous time of love and laughter – and good food! The Better@Home program is another great story about more coordinated care to improve life for our patients, like 62-year-old Loddon Mallee patient ‘DR’. Post-surgery at Echuca Regional Health, DR not only recovered safely at home, but was supported to get his diet and diabetes under control – a life- enhancing and probably life-saving experience. The experiences of patients like Warwick and DR reaffirm our understanding that, this side of the pandemic, improved coordination and collaboration between services must be our driving goal. Victorians expect it of us.
And there’s so much more we can do. For example, last week we saw the opening of the first of what will ultimately be 25 planned Priority Primary Care Centres, including one near Bendigo Health. These centres will provide a new, extended hours service for Victorians who need urgent attention but are better seen outside of an Emergency Department. They will work closely with our health services. If we want to support Victorians in our local communities, and across this great state, we cannot be an archipelago of scattered service islands. It’s not safe. It’s not effective. Our patients need us to be collaborative by default, to create a high-performing, joined-up health system that truly promotes and supports the health and wellbeing of all Victorians – like Warwick and DR. Here’s to building bridges across the islands.
Professor Euan Wallace Secretary Department of Health
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Message from the
Chair, Loddon Mallee Health Network I am really pleased to see this new publication, over time I hope it will become the go to for regional news regarding our collaborative efforts for improving health services throughout the Loddon Mallee. It is our intent to combine a number of existing publications into one regional newsletter including the Loddon Mallee Shared Services and Loddon Mallee Health Network as well as the Loddon Mallee Public Health Unit and associated functions. I hope you enjoy having less emails and hope this regional review evolves into something you look out for in your inbox each quarter. The Loddon Mallee Health Network was the vision of a number of passionate, patient-focussed health service CEOs throughout the Loddon Mallee who were driven by the possibilities created by working together more formally - we knew we would be better together. We took a risk and went for it. Following the appointment of a General Manager we created our governance structure that was designed to deliver on our shared vision. When we first agreed to develop a Joint Venture Agreement and progress our collective efforts into something more formal, we were not aware of the impending disruption in the form of a global pandemic, a more immediate threat to our communities at that time was the risk of fires. Since we first agreed on our Vision, Values and Strategy the value of collaboration has been very clear, not just within our region but throughout the entire State. COVID positive pathways, streaming
Thank you to all of you for believing in this shared effort and for continuing to work together in the face of so much uncertainty and your own local challenges.
LMHN Regional Review | Issue 1 | Spring 2022
hospitals and shared funding bids are just some of the successes that have delivered better care for our patients. In addition to this we have seen the development of Health Service Partnerships and the Loddon Mallee Public Health Unit, both of which have a region-wide focus and have created more opportunities for us to work differently. Repeatedly our region is held up as a best practice example of collaboration and we continue to see the progress we can make when we combine resources, skills and knowledge. In the coming months the Public Health Unit will grow into a true public health function rather than a pandemic response. The expected rise of Japanese encephalitis cases this Summer will be a key focus for them, as will be working on climate change and climate change adaptation and of course there will be continued need to respond to COVID as required.
Thank you to all of you for believing in this shared effort and for continuing to work together in the face of so much uncertainty and your own local challenges. It is a privilege to be the Chair and I congratulate you all on the past two years - the future is exciting.
Peter Faulkner Chair Loddon Mallee Health Network
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Loddon Mallee Health Network
Whilst the last couple of years have been influenced by our work as health services to provide a response to the COVID pandemic, the LMHN’s collaborative relationships with the region ensured we could support and coordinate the work we needed to achieve together. Back in July 2020, the LMHN launched their first strategic plan. The Regional Plan 2020+ aims to deliver on the vision to shape the future of health service delivery to give our communities a great experience throughout our region. The Regional Plan Priorities commit us to operating strategically and collaboratively across the region to strengthen the future offering and viability of health care services to our communities and this creates a great foundation to pursue regional initiatives together. You can find out more at www.lmhn.org.au Spanning across various clinical and corporate areas the initiatives that the LMHN have invested in align with the regional priorities. Currently we are focussed on: • Aged Care • Allied Health Training
The LMHN are committed to investing in work and systems that create a strong foundation for connected work and environments that support future collaboration. This year funding has been allocated to supporting regional approaches in leadership development, international recruitment and marketing, workforce systems and analytics, and the KRONOS uplift. An important role of the LMHN is to deliver on the priorities outlined by the Victorian Department of Health for Health Service Partnerships (HSP). This includes the Better@Home program (which aims to provide more health care within patients’ homes where appropriate, through the use of home- delivered and virtual care) and Elective Surgery Reform program (which aims to improve elective surgery performance, by reducing wait times and improving patient outcomes), both which are led by Regional Project Leads who work with our health services to achieve outcomes. Future HSP priorities are outlined by Department of Health and the LMHN are equipped to establish and govern their progress and outcomes effectively as a region. The LMHN operates in three sub regional (geographic) catchments of the Loddon, Mallee and Murray. This enables a localised consideration and approach to the regional initiatives that the LMHN implements and coordinates. Each member health service is located in one of the sub regions. See map overleaf on page 9.
• Volunteering • Gender Equity • Virtual Care • Telehealth
With soon to commence initiatives in Aboriginal Cultural Safety and Shared Policy and Protocols.
LMHN Regional Review | Issue 1 | Spring 2022
Mildura Base Hospital
Robinvale District HS
Mildura
Robinvale District HS (Manangatang)
Swan Hill
Mallee Track H&CS (Ouyen)
Swan Hill District HS
Mallee Track H&CS (Sea Lake)
Kerang & District Health
Gannawarra
Cohuna District Hospital
Buloke
East Wimmera HS (Birchip) East Wimmera HS (Wycheproof)
Boort District Health
Echuca Regional Health
Rochester & Elmore DHS
East Wimmera HS (Charlton)
Campaspe
Kyabram District HS
Loddon
East Wimmera HS (Donald)
Inglewood & Districts HS
East Wimmera HS (St Arnaud)
Bendigo Health
Bendigo
Maryborough & District HS (Dunolly)
Heathcote Health Dhelkaya Health (Castlemaine & Maldon)
Maryborough & District HS
MALLEE MURRAY LODDON
Mount Alexander
Central Goldfields
Central Highlands Rural Health
Macedon Ranges
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Loddon Mallee Public Health Unit
August 2022 saw the second year anniversary of the Loddon Mallee Public Health Unit (LMPHU). Established in response to the pandemic, the tireless work of individuals and services across the region raising awareness, engaging communities, testing, vaccinating and managing outbreaks has played a significant part in reducing the impacts as far as possible, and setting us up as well as possible for future waves. Now, the LMPHU is looking to the future. Since July, the unit has a wider purview for the prevention and control of communicable and non- communicable disease in the Loddon Mallee. Staff and resources from five Primary Care Partnerships
across the Loddon Mallee have transitioned into the unit. “The staff in our prevention and population health team are accomplished collaborators. Their knowledge around partnership development and community engagement is second to none,” unit Director Dr Bruce Bolam said. “In the short time since they came into the unit, we have already seen the benefits of this local expertise and we look forward to advancing partnerships with agencies and communities across the region to continue to address prevention and population health priorities,” he added.
LMSHSNDRigeigtiaolnNael wRes v|ieIwssue |1 | IsOsucteo1ber |202S2pring 2022
A particular concern in coming months is the risk of outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases in a wet La Nina summer – last year having seen the first ever outbreak of Japanese Encephalitis in the region. While supply of vaccine against this disease is limited it will be more important than ever to get the ‘Protect Yourself’ prevention message out there. But the team is also thinking in the longer term.
“Climate change is causing increased risk of mosquito-borne diseases in our region. Alongside preparing for outbreaks this summer, our prevention and population health team has already planned out a longer-term project to engage agencies and communities across the region in building resilience to the health effects of climate change,” said Dr Bolam. For further information visit Protect yourself from mosquito-borne disease - Better Health Channel.
300,000+ vaccinations
700,000+ PCR tests
400+ COVID-19 outbreaks managed
130+ of these were in residential aged care facilities
21,000+ referrals to regional COVID-positive pathways services
170,000+ Rapid Antigen tests distributed
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LMHN responds to the Flood Crisis
Victoria is still in a flood emergency and LMHN services are rallying together to support Health Services impacted. In response to the flood emergency across the region, LMSS Virtual Care Office have created a Virtual Emergency Health Response module within Regional Care Coordination Platform, for use across the Loddon Mallee. The module will enable Health Service staff to track, triage, and refer people from flood-affected areas (in particular, those in Emergency Relief Centres) to targeted care and support in their local area. Creating this digital platform has been a rapid collaboration between the Virtual Care Office, the LMSS Applications & Architecture team and regional project teams (Better@Home, and COVID+ pathways) with support from the LMHN. The module has been developed at speed within 5 days and is now live. Rochester and Elmore District Health Service The Information Technology Services (ITS) team have assisted Rochester and Elmore District Health Service (REDHS) throughout the flood crisis, both in the evacuation stage, and in the recovery stage. Assistance provided during the evacuation stage was focused on ensuring REDHS staff had access to adequate technology within the Bendigo Hospital and access to their data and systems hosted at Rochester. Following significant water ingress to the Rochester Hospital, the LMSS ITS team worked collaboratively with REDHS to conduct asset recovery and enact the REDHS ICT Disaster Recovery plan. The support for REDHS has continued with desktop asset damage assessments and relocation in readiness for removal, together with assisting the site to deploy temporary office buildings and the enabling IT infrastructure.
Fortunately, other sites across the region have not been impacted to the degree of Rochester, however LMSS have been proactive in reaching out to external agencies to ensure they have sufficient support and a disaster recovery plan available should they need them. Included in this response, of course, are our amazing healthcare workers and services who are working tirelessly to ensure continuity of care during a flood emergency; which presents the additional demand for flood related health and wellbeing impacts.
Before the flood
After the flood
LMHN Regional Review | Issue 1 | Spring 2022
Virtual Care Office for the Loddon Mallee A Virtual Care Office is being established for the Loddon Mallee with the goal of utilising Virtual Care to connect people to the healthcare they need, regardless of where they live. The office will provide governance and oversight of virtual care initiatives, including existing and future initiatives. Examples of these include the rollout of Remote Patient Monitoring technology through the Better@Home project and the continued expansion of the use of Telehealth following on from the Telehealth Strategy project. The office will also lead the initiation and implementation of future Virtual Care initiatives, which aim to improve the patient experience of and access to healthcare. The office will foster collaboration across the region, working with clinical and operational teams to support adoption of virtual care and will utilise co-design approaches. The establishment of appropriate governance structures and identification of clinical leads across the region
is the focus of the initial period of establishment. Meet the Virtual Care Office team:
Virtual Care Office Manager – Katrina Neave
Virtual Care Office Coordinator – Claire Mangan
Katrina Neave will be known to many of you having just established and managed the COVID Positive Pathways service for the region, which included the implementation of Virtual Home Monitoring across the region. Katrina brings to the role of Virtual Care Office Manager the recent experience of leading the Better@Home program of work for the Loddon Mallee, which she will continue to do alongside this new role. She has an extensive background in Digital Health, Change Management and has a Nursing background and a passion for improving the consumer experience of care.
Claire has recent Nursing experience and more than 15 years of experience in corporate roles, which included senior marketing roles and leading projects. Claire has a great deal of passion for the development of Virtual Care opportunities and services across the region and is a fantastic addition to our Loddon Mallee Shared Services team.
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Our values: Respect. Integrity. Collaboration.
www.lhmn.org.au
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