#3 Autumn 2018 South West THRIVELeading care, healthier communities Connect Got it! Program Care Our staff Teach Launch to school More news inside! South Western Sydney Local Health District Contents CE message Imagining the future 03 It’s often said that staff are every organisation’s greatest asset. Our Staff 04 While this is irrefutably true for our District, I also believe that our staff Live, work, care locally 06 are our patients’ greatest asset. Lifeblood: Our nurses and 08 They mend broken bones, teach the work they do people to walk again, heal wounds, remove tumours, unblock arteries Finding voices 10 and deliver babies. They are educators, carers, NSW-first program helping 12 advocates and often see patients Aboriginal kids connect through the most joyous or difficult Above: Chris Patterson MP, Prof moments of their lives. They provide The future of health 14 Neil Merrett, Morris Iemma, Cr care beyond measure. Wendy Waller, Prof Phil Harris, Youth of today 16 So this edition of Thrive celebrates Glenn Brookes MP, Amanda Larkin. staff - the doctors, nurses, The art of happiness 16 Left: Sonia Marshall, Joel Bardsley, midwives, allied health professionals Dr Terry Flynn, Claire Ramsden. A healthy outlook 18 and support staff who are the lifeblood of South Western Sydney Local Health District. More time for patient care 19 Ms Amanda Larkin, District Chief Executive, In the lead up to International said the Plan is the road map to meet the New direction 19 Imagining Nurses and Midwives Day in May, we healthcare needs of the region’s diverse Get to know our staff 20 have focused on nurses, who make population for the next four years. up almost half of our workforce “The Plan builds on the District’s great and provide care in a number of the future tradition of providing high quality and different ways, from cancer care and The future for the south innovative healthcare to the people of our immunisation nurses to midwives. west looks bright, with a community, and identifies our commitment They elevate us from healthcare to remaining among the best healthcare providers to trusted partners and we booming population, endless providers in the world.’’ thank them. opportunities for growth The Plan features six important strategic and development and a directions and sets our vision on how we will deliver safe, quality care to our patients, healthcare system which is support a healthier community, work in Pictured on cover: Pierre Goorkiz, Liverpool Hospital Ms Amanda Larkin being built for the future. partnership with our community and build a Junior Medical Officer healthcare system for the future. Robotic surgery advances, research and Chief Executive, Thrive is produced by the Strategic innovation aimed at making our community “There is also a focus on our research South Western Sydney Communications and Media team. the healthiest it can be, are among the and teaching ability, and it sets out how Local Health District Writers: Hayley Delicata, Kerrie Armstrong, key priorities of the South Western Sydney we support our greatest asset – every Noor Kalifa, and Mandy Perrin. Local Health District Strategic Plan clinician, nurse, patient support officer and Advertising and editorial enquiries: 02 8738 6941 or 2018-2021. corporate staff member,” Ms Larkin said. [email protected] South Western Sydney Local Health District www.swslhd.health.nsw.gov.au 2 3 Leading care, healthier communities Our Staff 582 adults and 74 children admitted to Working for you, our Hospitals. caring for you To care for all of these people, our workforce is over 15,690 people strong. An organisation which covers an area With an average age of 42 years old, 75 twice as big as Adelaide and cares for per cent of our staff are women. the health of almost a million people Our workforce includes 44 per cent needs a strong, reliable and skilled nurses, 11 per cent medical staff and 9 workforce to keep its gears turning. per cent allied health staff. On a typical day across the District They work across 6 hospitals and 13 there are 30 babies born, 120 operations, major community health centres and 743 visits to Emergency Departments, integrated health hubs. Leaders of the future Since 2003, the District has been training future health managers through the Graduate Health Management Program. The two year program provides on the job training and experience combined with a University of Tasmania degree. 23 future leaders have Graduate Health Management been involved in the Trainees Brittany Knox, Damien program since 2013. Saavedra and Juman Abdoh. 4 5 Leading care, healthier communities Live, work, care locally Seeing his grandparents (thankfully) has much greater awareness of how to behave in public. I’m often asked When people go in and out of Liverpool why I chose Liverpool, out of all hospitals Hospital, and as a young within NSW, to begin my career. ask me why I patient himself, Dr Pierre In the 19 years since first entering that chose to begin Goorkiz was inspired waiting room, I grew to see Liverpool Hospital establish itself as the largest my career to take up medicine in hospital in New South Wales and one of Sydney’s south west. the leading trauma hospitals in Australia. I “at Liverpool watched as my grandmother recovered from Dr Goorkiz, who lives locally, is among a life-changing hip replacement surgery this year’s intake of 103 junior doctors performed by brilliant orthopods. I walked Hospital, my starting the next stage of their training with her as she regained her mobility and at hospitals across the District. He has independence under the careful guidance answer is, very close ties to the south west, growing up of the physiotherapy and occupational in Fairfield, attending school in Liverpool therapy staff. I held my grandfather’s hand simply, that and studying at Western Sydney University after he was diagnosed with Lewy Body in Campbelltown. Dementia in the outpatient neurology clinic this place feels Dr Goorkiz is passionate about playing a and felt the warmth of the nursing staff who role in the future of local healthcare and cared for him in the palliative care unit in like home.” spoke at the launch of South Western his final months. All of this happened within Sydney Local Health District’s Strategic the corridors of this amazing hospital. Plan 2018-2021. I completed my medical degree at Western My name is Pierre and I’m one of the new Sydney University, where I formed a close As someone interested in junior doctors at Liverpool Hospital. As bond with Narellan Rotary. As many of you anaesthetics as a career, I am excited someone who has lived, been educated and know, they have given tremendous support to begin my journey at Liverpool worked in South West Sydney for all their to research at the Ingham’s Institute that Hospital working in the very same life, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing how is no doubt putting south west Sydney Emergency Department that I first significantly this district has developed in on the map. The ethos of Western Sydney set foot in at four years old. It’s only “the last 23 years. University is grounded in appreciating the too fitting that just last week I was I wanted to begin by sharing a light-hearted unique qualities that shape the health reviewing a young boy with a rash on story about my first memory of Liverpool environment of western Sydney. Throughout his torso. Like the doctor that saw me 19 years ago, I approached him and his Hospital. I was four years old and had been my clinical years, I cycled through rotations mother in the waiting room. Similar to running amok after bath time when my mum as a student at Liverpool, Campbelltown a young me 19 years ago, he replied to noticed a small lump on my groin. Terrified and Fairfield Hospitals, where I was inspired my greeting by whipping his shirt over and confused, she rushed me to the by mentors who truly care about reducing his head, unfazed by the audience in Emergency Department at Liverpool and the health inequality existing within south the waiting room. it wasn’t long before a doctor greeted us. west Sydney. Being the child of Assyrian Armed with the shamelessness of a four- refugees, I was particularly grateful to It’s clear that children will never year-old, I responded to his question of ‘why witness the hard work of this Local Health change, however south west Sydney have you come to the hospital?’ by proudly District in addressing the health needs of and the climate of health care in this pulling down my pants in the middle of the this growing population within Liverpool and district continues to evolve every day. waiting room. Needless-to-say, he was Fairfield. I hope this Strategic Plan helps to lead much less impressed by my inguinal hernia When people ask me why I chose to us into a brighter and better future for than I was. this community and I am absolutely begin my career at Liverpool Hospital, honoured to be a part of this change. Fast forward to today and I’m working my answer is, very simply, that this place at Liverpool Hospital as a doctor who feels like home. - Dr Pierre Goorkiz 6 7 Leading” care, healthier communities Lifeblood: Beth Ivimey Cancer Care Lucinda Scopelliti Drug Coordinator at Bankstown- Health Nurse Practitioner at Lidcombe Hospital Campbelltown Hospital Our nurses Beth was destined to be a nurse. A latex allergy led Lucinda down Both her grandmothers were her career path.