HoD Welcome

Dear Colleagues

I was hoping this newsletter would find you in less restricted times but alas for our colleagues in metropolitan Melbourne we are again in lockdown and facing a pandemic with more community spread than earlier this year. As the need for vigilance is even higher than before I am sending you all our positive thoughts from the Department of General Practice.

We are happy that teaching will return for medical students visiting general practice on placement. They are experiencing a one in a 100 year event and they will be learning and experiencing medicine in quite a different way than their predecessors. We are grateful to all of our teaching practices out there who are offering of their time and expertise in helping our students have these experiences. We look forward to their reflections about clinical care in community settings during a pandemic!!

Our general practice research fieldwork has been on hold during the last set of restrictions and we are not sure how the current lockdown will affect some of these activities. We plan to begin the important research activity with general practices again soon and look forward to working with you on practical ways to achieve this and of course for your feedback on what may not be possible.

We hope you enjoy this quarter’s newsletter.

I sincerely wish you all a sense of hope and wellbeing during the next 6 weeks

Lena

(PS – an analogy that made me smile but which I also found very useful to explain to my patients is about how to wear a mask):

“Treat your mask like underwear”

  1. Make sure it covers your … (nose and mouth)!
  1. do not touch or adjust (especially in public)!
  1. change mask daily  -or more often ie every 4 hours- don’t re-use it!
  1. Do not borrow or lend!
  1. make sure it fits tight and comfortable
  1. wear the right side out
  1. If there is holes in it throw it away
  1. if it is stained throw it away
  1. if it is damp change it
  1. wash your hands after taking it off –if you do touch it!! 

    And I add

  1. When you take it off handle only from strings and drop straight into washing basket (if a fabric) or into bin if disposable (not on the kitchen bench!!)