Name withheld (3)

• Checking on staff in isolation – I am an employee who is funded out of an LGH cost centre code but based mostly at North West Regional Hospital. I therefore quarantined when the North West Regional Hospital was closed as per all other staff. At no time was I checked on to ensure I was in quarantine or that my family were in quarantine. I am aware of other staff who are also funded out of other cost centres who were not contacted either. This indicates that that there may be a flaw if using payroll date to identify staff who work in a nominated facility.
• Decommissioning the hospital and access to medical records – in the lead up to Easter 2020 patients were discharged home as per normal process. With the announcement was made that the hospital was to be closed for a deep clean and quarantine, a decommission process commenced. Patient who were transferred had their records moved with them. But patients who went home had their medical records remain in the clinical areas during the hospital closure. There clinical information was unavailable should the patient represented to another facility for care or if it was needed for contract tracing purposes. During the contact tracing period I was contacted asking for access to medical records but this could not be provided as they were not accessible. I would like to suggest that should a hospital decommission occur in the future in Tasmania, that medical records documentation is priority scanned to the Digital Medical Record by the medical records staff. This would ensure it is available for ongoing care purposes as well as contract tracing.
• Handling of medical records documentation – on the 18^th March 2020, I raised my first request for direction on safe handling practices of medical record documentation and if documentation could be moved between different areas of the hospital, as well as what PPE was required for the medical records staff handling documentation. I sent 14 emails and numerous phone calls from this date until the 8^th April 2020 seeking direction. There was a high amount of anxiety for the team and mixed messages about what should be occurring the management of medical records documentation.  This created uncertainty that staff were not safe in the workplace and we felt unimportant as were are not clinical and our questions not answered in a timely manner.

Thankyou for considering this feedback.

Kind regards