VMO Communications

11 February 2022

From 21 February, pharmacy services at Mater Sydney Hospital will be provided by Epic Pharmacy. Epic has over 30 years of experience in hospital pharmacy services and is committed to delivering exceptional pharmacy care for our hospital patients. Mater Sydney and Epic are working to ensure clinicians, staff and patients are supported through the changeover.

From a service perspective, it will be ‘business as usual’ with doctors and nursing staff to expect the same strong clinical support. The current pharmacy team will mostly remain the same, with new Epic uniforms and signage to reflect the change.

IMPORTANT! PHARMACY CONTACT NUMBERS WILL CHANGE FROM 21 FEBRARY

Epic Pharmacy Phone: 02 9068 9560

Epic Pharmacy Fax: 02 9169 3457

Email for orders: mater.pharmacy@svha.org.au

Email general: NthSyd@epicpharmacy.com.au

Scan the QR to save these details directly into your mobile or device.

All prescriber numbers will be transferred. If you wish to open a personal or business account with Epic, click here.

Epic look forward to providing you with a quality medication service. For more information visit www.epicpharmacy.com.au or download the FAQs document.

25 January 2022

Any accredited practitioner who provides services for public in-patients at the Mater Hospital as a result of the pandemic will be paid at the Fee for Service VMO rate as defined by NSW Health. See download below.

Download the Fee for Service Determination.

Wednesday 22 September 2021

NSW Health Risk Matrix

Please see attached the most recent version of a risk matrix developed by NSW Health for assessing Health Care Worker exposure to COVID in the workplace.

It provides guidance about what steps should be taken should an event occur, and it factors in key issues such as length of time spent in contact, proximity and the type of protective equipment in use at the time. Experience with recent exposure events continues to highlight the importance of wearing appropriate PPE, and the value of completing a vaccination programme.

Tuesday 7 September 2021

ANZCA Position Statement on slow release opioids

Click here to read the letter from Dr Alastair D'Vaz (Chair, Department of Anaesthesia) and Dr Maroun Mallat (Chair, Medication Safety Committee) and to download the full ANZCA Position Statement.

We suggest that practitioners read the document carefully and consider its recommendations prior to prescribing opioids or requesting ward residents to prescribe on their behalf.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me, Maree Bellamy.

New Palliative Care Referral Form

A referral can be made for:

Specialist medical consults for complex pain and symptom management, end of life care etc.
Palliative & Supportive CNC consult for symptom management advice, linkage to community palliative care services etc.
Allied health consult for physiotherapy, occupational therapy, social work, pastoral & spiritual care etc.
For urgent referrals please call switch 9900 7300 or "9" for the on-call palliative care physician. All other referrals please email/scan to: admin.materpalliativecare@svha.org.au
Download Palliative Care Referral Form (PDF 329.1KB)

Electronic Discharge Summaries of Overnight Patients to My Health Record

This week the Mater Hospital will begin uploading electronic discharge summaries of overnight patients to My Health Record. My Health Record provides a vital source of information for healthcare professionals and their patients enabling continuity of care between the hospital health system and community care.

National healthcare standards and Private health Insurance contracts now require GPs & Patients receive an electronic Nursing Discharge Summary.
Sample discharge summary. (PDF 859.9KB)

To support our Nursing and Allied health staff with this new way of documenting, a staged roll out is planned.

Orthopaedic wards will go live Tuesday the 27th of April and all wards will be uploading by the 1st of July.

Before accessing My Health record ensure you have completed the required training.

New Policy: Management of Acute Deterioration in Mental State.

A policy focusing on the management of acute mental health deterioration in patients has recently been approved and published by the Mater Hospital.

Management of acute deterioration in mental state. (PDF 423.3KB)

In recent times events in the facility have included mental health deterioration in in-patients, visitors and staff members. As a result, we believe the guidance provided in this document has relevance for all practitioners and we encourage you to become familiar with it. If you have any questions about the content please contact Dr Maree Bellamy (Director Medical Services) on 0414 191 018 or the Executive Suite on ground floor.