3.30 pm | 3 December 2020
Hi everyone,
Today the Incident Management Team (IMT) will be conducting a gate review to assess the current COVID-19 situation and will make recommendations for our network’s next steps in our support and forward planning. We will share the outcomes of this review with you in Lesley’s Friday message.
COVID-19 safe plan
Over the past few days our IMT has worked with Operational Services to ensure all CALHN sites have a COVID-safe plan as required by the Emergency Directive No. 14 that came into effect from 1 December 2020.
With over 213 sites across CALHN, the team identified a site contact for each site to ensure a local plan was created and QR codes are being established for all sites.
I can confirm that all of our sites now have a COVID-safe plan and on behalf of the Executive and the Incident Management Team I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to us achieving this.
Currently the RAH will continue to use the Sine App (enabling health screening and contact tracing) with other sites adopting the mySAGOV app for check ins.
Checking into our sites upon entry is now a legislative requirement as per Emergency Directive No. 14. It is expected that all staff, patients and visitors will check in using the appropriate app and/or website. If you do not have a smartphone a SA Government contract tracing record sheet is available at access points in all our sites.
Masks
Thank you for complying with the new government directive that requires all people onsite - staff, patients and visitors to wear a mask when around other people. We know that wearing a mask all day can be tiresome, however we do know that it is our best defence in protecting ourselves and our community against the spread of COVID-19.
We are updating our mask FAQs daily so if you have any questions please visit the staff mask FAQs for the latest information.
Working from home
We can confirm that if staff are able to work from home that they should continue to do so. We need to decompress our sites to support the current guidelines around physical distancing of 1 person per 4 square metres.
This includes continuing with reduced services on-site, reduced face-to-face meetings and the continued use of telehealth for outpatients for now. We will provide more information on this next week as the situation evolves.
PPE update
As you may remember from our previous bulletins, we have a number of N95 8210 masks that had an expiry date of the end of July and August 2020.
SA Health has had these masks independently re-tested at VicLabs and I am pleased to advise that they passed the tests and are deemed fit for use.
COVID-19 clinic update
From today, Thursday, 3 December 2020, both the RAH and TQEH COVID-19 clinics will return to their normal opening hours of 9am to 6pm.
Both TQEH and RAH will continue to swab/treat children however pregnant women will still need to attend the Women’s and Children’s Hospital for testing.
Keeping informed during COVID-19
We would like to again remind you that you can find the latest information on our COVID-19 staff portal. This site is regularly updated with staff information and resources.
We will also continue to regularly post to the CALHN Workforce Facebook Group. If you haven't yet joined this group, we encourage you to do so.
Kathryn Zeitz
CALHN COVID-19 Commander