Mackay Base Hospital Intensivist Dr Stephen Luke has been recognised for his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Luke received the Performance and Development Award that recognises a team or individual who has excelled in education, research and innovation, performance, strategy and planning and efficiencies across the organisation.
Chief Executive Lisa Davies Jones said Dr Luke had risen to the challenge when the health service had to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“He was instrumental in bringing the three critical care teams of Intensive Care, Cardiology and Anaesthetics together and wrote a comprehensive Critical Care Plan.
“This plan has three tiers of response to outline how we could use our space and resources to respond to the pandemic.”
This document is now the core document that guides the health service’s response in the event we ever care for a critically ill COVID-19 patient.
Ms Davies Jones said Dr Luke did a lot of the work in his own time.
“He brought his leadership and disaster management skills to the table for the benefit of the whole Mackay HHS.”
As part of the ICU plan, Dr Luke recommended more isolation bed spaces be created with permanent infrastructure.
ICU now has more ventilators and an extra two isolation bays to double the hospital’s capacity to care for COVID-19 and other patients requiring respiratory isolation.
“His exemplary commitment to ensuring the safety of all our staff and planning for capacity to look after all our patients while collaborating with all the parties involved generated trust in our staff when we found ourselves in a novel situation where the health of the staff was seriously under threat for the first time in anyone’s career.”
