CEO Update Monday 21 March 2015
Influenza can be anywhere get immunised It’s time to protect yourself, your whānau, your patients and your community from influenza (flu). The vaccine is available at General Practices now and staff clinics will begin around the start of April. It’s pretty well known that influenza is a serious disease. It’s not a cold. It comes on quickly, and when you are hit by influenza you are very unwell – often with fever, body aches, extreme tiredness and a dry cough. It can lead to serious health problems such as pneumonia, and bacterial infections which require hospital treatment.
We’re also putting extra resources into encouraging Māori to get vaccinated this year. Marae visits, radio advertising and information sheets focussed on answering questions and concerns that Māori in particular have, will sit alongside the national advertising campaign.
The good news is, influenza immunisation is still our best protection available against this debilitating virus. Later in the update there’s information about staff vaccination clinics near your workplace. I encourage you to get in early, immunisation is free for staff. It takes two weeks for the vaccination to become effective. Canterbury DHB staff need to lead the way in protecting our community. Our patients come to us at a time when they are very vulnerable. Our duty of care demands we do all we can to safeguard their health. Good hand hygiene coupled with flu vaccination goes a long way to achieving this. Our colleagues in other DHBs are faced with the same priority. Unlike Waikato DHB we won’t be requiring non-vaccinated staff to wear masks but I cannot emphasise strongly enough just how important it is we keep flu at bay. The knock-on effects for our Emergency Department can be devastating. Staff absence due to illness also affects the people you work with who have to fill in and cover your role. So think about your patients, think about your colleagues, think about your family, think about yourself. We’ll again be relying on our colleagues in primary care to reach out to their patients and call them in for vaccinations. Selected pharmacies will also be offering vaccinations. Canterbury DHB has provided flu button badges to our health colleagues to wear. The idea is that by wearing the badge the practice nurse, resthome worker or midwife is able to start a conversation with the person they are caring for, about getting the flu vaccination.
Above: Watch out for the posters, which are being placed around our work areas. The images were taken in the Acute Medical Assessment Unit.
›› Article continues on page 2
In this issue »» Funding announcement re mental health services..page 2
»» What you need to know about the flu and the vaccination...page 8&9
»» Searching for controlled documents... page 12
»» MedChart Prescriber training..page 5
»» Smokefree stand big success ...page 10
»» Recruitment Update...page 13
»» Youth Speciality Service - creating an awesome environment...page 11
»» One minute with Chris Goodyer...page 14
»» AMAU vaccinator at the ready this flu season...page 8
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