DonateLife | Australian Organ & Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority

NSW Transition Newsletter June 2009

Agency accommodation

Work has commenced on the fit-out of the new office of the NSW Organ and Tissue Donation Agency and NSW Organ and Tissue Donation Service Executive on level 6, 4 Belgrave Street Kogarah. The floor plan features a reception area, interview room, a fourteen person meeting room, kitchenette, ‘hot desk’ office and terrace balconies with access from the front, back and sides of the office. Views from the back balcony extend to Botany Bay and the airport. The on-call cars will be housed in the garage in the basement of the building and provides secure access to the building out of hours. Please see the furniture lay out plan for the office over the page.

Moving date to the new office will be around the 1st July 2009. Mail, email and land line phone calls to the present Clarence Street, Red Cross House site of the Agency will be diverted to the Kogarah site for a period of time after the move. Page numbers and individual staff mobile phone numbers will not change.

The new postal address for the Agency and Service is PO Box 486 Kogarah NSW1485 and will be checked daily from the 1st July 2009. Notification of the moving date, email address and landline phone numbers will be made to all stakeholders as soon as they are known.

Nursing positions

After being endorsed by the Union Specific Consultative Committee with the NSW Nurses Association, the NSW Organ and Tissue Donation Service nursing position descriptions are now with the SESIAHS Grading Committee.

Once graded, the Nurse Manager, an additional temporary State Donor Nurse Consultant position (CNC 2) both based at the Agency and the 12 FTE Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS 2) positions spread across the State will be advertised.

The positions could be advertised as soon as the middle of June. Please see over the page for the location of the CNS 2 positions.

Many thanks to those who have assisted with the creation and review of the position descriptions.

National Eye and Tissue Bank Network review

Representatives from the NSW Eye and Tissue Banks, NSW Health and key stakeholders have been invited to participate in a workshop in Sydney on the 18th June 2009, the next stage of consultation towards the implementation of the National Eye and Tissue Network.

Recognised as the largest donation and transplantation sector in Australian, Health Outcomes International Pty Ltd have been sponsored by the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority, to conduct the review with the aim of evaluating supply and demand, identifying the gaps, and exploring the options of implementing the National Network, the governance of the Network and options to increase capacity.

The review process will also explore the relationship of the Network with the TGA, State based agencies and hospital based Medical and Nursing positions.

National communications charter

The Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority announced on the 1st June 2009 that the National Communication Charter has been signed by 46 signatories including all eight state and territory governments plus community and stakeholders organisations. The Charter will guide the sector to communicate clear and consistent messages and dispel myths and misinformation in the public arena.

Annual service of remembrance and reflection

Congratulations to Ms Alison Barnwell and the LifeGift nsw/act staff for their planning and organisation of the Annual Service of Remembrance and Reflection held on the 30th May 2009. One of the highlights of the service was the presentation of the memories and thoughts written by the attendees at the 2008 service - ‘my favourite memory of my loved one is…’ shared by representatives of donor families and ‘transplant has made it possible for me to…’ by representatives of the transplant recipient community.

Recruitment of Medical & Nursing Positions

The position description and recruitment sites for the Hospital Medical Directors have been finialised. Letters of confirmation will be sent this week to the NSW AHS Chief Executives to confirm the transition of the current Area Donor Coordinators to Area Clinical Nurse Consultant - Organ and Tissue and Link Nurse at Nepean to Clinical Nurse Specialist - Organ and Tissue from the 1st of July and the creation of the new medical and nursing positions as given in the table below.

Allocation of the new positions has been based on advice from statewide services and is aligned with the critical networks, trauma networks, and areas of known and potential donor activity. While the positions are based at particular hospitals, all of the hospital-based positions will have an Area or network responsibility. The project management team has been working with key stakeholders to ensure that a workable model has been developed for implementation. It is acknowledged however that not all requests were able to be accommodated within the resources provided.