Friday 5: 04 March 2022

Kia ora koutou,

Welcome to this weeks edition of the Friday 5! Where we will celebrate all the wonderful on-going work at the NRHCC.

1.This week marks two years since the first case o COVID-19 was detected in Auckland and, over the last two years the outbreak response team has set up more than 13 testing sites and delivered 3,459,651 tests. Our border and MIQ teams have been an essential part of the elimination and suppression strategy, keeping tens of thousands of cases out of the community and caring for them while they recovered. Our Vaccination team have delivered 3,602,336 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and our community team have constantly adapted to the changing environment and, have supported whānau through the incredibly hard work of the Māori and Pacific teams and the creation and delivery of whanau HQ . We can all feel proud that together, we have served the people of Auckland and helped lead a response to COVID-19 that has been one of the best in the world

2. Tears, hugs, laughter, and the shouts of children echoed through the arrival’s halls of New Zealand, as the country opened its borders and lifted isolation requirements.

3. Ka pai! To the Whanau HQ team who successfully placed someone into alternative accommodation last Sunday and used our first campervan to support a family protecting a new-born in the house. Our campervan accommodation is to support whanau that live together and may have trouble isolating properly in their household

4. The Pup-parazzi were out in full force this week and our Border health staff had some special visitors in the form of puppies! These two came through as a part of their training programme and worked on their social skills with the team, just another day at the paw-ffice

5. Nga mihi nui! To all our NRHCC workforce colleagues who have accepted the call up to support our DHB colleagues during the current Omicron outbreak, and help maintain minimum service delivery for our critical services.

In this difficult time with huge pressures on us and our teams there might be a requirement for additional support. Raise, the organisation that manages the DHBs employee assistance programme, are running team and individual wellbeing check-ins with a trained professional.

The check-ins are free and completely separate from your existing Raise allowance. Team sessions are one hour and individual sessions are 15- 30 minutes. You can book more than one session. If you want to book a team session with your team then let the workforce team know and fill the form in below. Otherwise staff can call individually themselves. For a confidential one-to-one check-in, or if you think your team would benefit from a wellbeing check-in, complete the online form on the Raise website or call 0800 735 343. A separate email will go out to all individuals as well. For more information: Head to the Raise website. Any questions let me know.

And finally haere ra to Summer Hawke who will be leaving the vaccination programme today to return to her substantive role at Counties Manukau. We have all been honoured to work with Summer who is a hero in the hearts of our communities. Thank you so much for sharing your skill, passion and aroha to our community and everyone in the programme! Wishing you all the best from everyone in the team!

Reminder: For any teams with new starters or colleagues who aren’t on the existing distribution list please email these through to SRogers@adhb.govt.nz to be added to the Friday 5 distribution list.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Ngā mihi,

The PMO Team