Published on 14 September 2022

As you would be aware, a national public holiday has been declared by the Commonwealth Government for Thursday, 22 September to allow Australians to mourn the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

In keeping with our commitment to provide Best Care to our community and given the enormity of what the health system has experienced over the past 2 years, it will be important for Western Health to continue to provide the majority of our scheduled clinical services on 22 September. Similar arrangements are in place for other major public health services in the State.

This means that the majority of our scheduled procedures and appointments such as elective surgery, endoscopy,  chemotherapy, radiotherapy, outpatient clinics and other planned procedures or appointments will proceed.

This was a difficult decision to make, knowing the hard work and commitment each of you have shown over these challenging times for healthcare. We acknowledge the efforts of all our staff and appreciate how hard you have all been working and thank you. We are looking for your support to keep our commitment to Best Care, and asking clinical, allied health and essential non-clinical staff who are rostered, to work on this day. The appropriate public holiday penalty rates will apply as applicable. There will be no change to leave that has been approved.

Over the next week key operational and clinical leads will work through all scheduled patient activity for 22 September and we will confirm the staffing requirements.

As you would appreciate it is important for those patients that require planned procedures/treatment for example like chemotherapy and dialysis that they continue to receive timely care and treatment. Similarly,  we would like to avoid further delays for patients that require elective procedures or attending a clinic which may have already previously been deferred as a result of the pandemic.

We understand some staff may be unable to work due to personal impacts of this public holiday. If you are unable to work, please let your line manager know.

For further clarification about how the public holiday may impact your role or create any unforeseen issues because of the short notice, please speak with your line manager.

In recognition of this significant day we will be holding a one minute silence to recognise the life and achievement of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Thank you for everything that you do to ensure that we provide Best Care to our patients and consumers, and for continuing to be there for our community when it matters most.

Regards

Shane
Acting Chief Executive