Published on 18 December 2023

As 2023 draws to a close, I want to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all our incredible staff and volunteers. You have all worked incredibly hard to support each other, our patients and community and have provided Best Care. 

It has been another big year at Western Health. To be honest, I can’t remember a year that hasn’t been big in my time here – but 2023 definitely saw a great deal of change and growth, which is helping position us to better meet the current and future needs of the community we serve.

Some of our 2023 highlights include:

Patient care

  • Providing more than 308,608 outpatient attendances, 176,772 emergency and urgent care presentations and 153,134 inpatients episodes of care (As part of these figures, we performed 37,903 surgeries, delivered 6773 babies and provided 2678 Hospital in the Home episodes) 
  • Exceeding our surgical targets in 2022/23, making us one of the most successful Victorian health services for meeting post-COVID targets and reducing waitlists 
  • Becoming a designated mental health provider, welcoming 670 staff as well as consumers and carers 
  • Opening our 52-bed Sunshine Mental Health and Wellbeing Centre, purpose-built to provide safe and supportive care for people experiencing an acute phase of mental illness 
  • Commencing the provision of primary healthcare at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre and building a new custodial health team of 80 staff  
  • Successfully undergoing short notice accreditation against the eight NSQHS Standards   
  • Delivering more than 2.5m meals through our Central Processing Kitchen 
  • Arranging an average of 1000 non-emergency patient transports per month.

Capital and service development

  • Going live with Phase 2 of our Electronic Medical Record platform, digitally linking emergency departments, inpatients, outpatients and theatre so that clinicians can see the whole patient journey across our health service 
  • Completion of the Sunshine Hospital pharmacy expansion, taking the footprint from 350m² to 800m² and installing automated dispensing cabinets 
  • Getting main works underway for the Sunbury Community Hospital with construction expected to be completed June 2024  
  • Seeing all five buildings of the new Footscray Hospital at full height and internal fit out underway, on track for opening in 2025 
  • Successfully undergoing short notice accreditation against the eight NSQHS standards.

Celebrating our people

  • Winning a Victorian Public Healthcare Award for our Babaneek Booboop Program – supporting the health and development outcomes of First Nations children in Melbourne’s outer west 
  • Celebrating 103 individual staff members and volunteers, 15 teams and 3 inspirational stories at our annual Inspire Awards, recognising colleagues who inspire us to live our CARES values. 
  • Appreciating our more than 300 volunteers at the annual Volunteers Week luncheon, acknowledging their contribution to the successful running of our health service and provision of Best Care 
  • Recognising 604 staff members at our annual Length of Service Awards, ranging from 10 years through to 50 years – of which we had 2 staff celebrate this incredible milestone. 

As Chief Executive, I see every day the pride that staff and volunteers have in their roles, the commitment you have not only to our patients but to each other, and the overwhelming generosity of spirit and can-do attitude that is a real characteristic of our people. These qualities are obvious to me, my fellow Executives and the Western Health Board who also share their thanks for your continued commitment and service. Equally, these qualities stood out to the surveyors who undertook our recent accreditation survey – they praised the standard of care, commitment to being person-centred, our culture of respect and teamwork, and involvement and empowerment of consumers in their care. I continue to be incredibly humbled and count myself very lucky to be the CEO of such a team and organisation.

I hope many of you will have some time off over the Christmas and new year period to spend time with friends and family, get out into nature, catch up on TV series and books or even grab a sleep in! Thank you to those working through the festive period – I hope you’ve got a break booked in soon.

Best wishes for the new year. 

Annual General Meeting 

Board Chair Robyn Batten AM and I presented the 2023 AGM on the 19 December, reflecting on the past 12 months and looking ahead to next year.

As part of the AGM, Robyn announced Judy Patterson, Perinatal Loss Coordinator as the winner of this year’s Board Chair Medal. You can watch Judy’s Inspirational Story here. Well done also to finalists Alison Lauder, Senior Dietitian, Grant Lodge and Bacchus Marsh Hospital and the Justice Health Transition Team.

The AGM video recording is now available here. (Proceedings start at 5 minute mark.)

 

Service Awards  

An impressive 604 people were recognised for their ongoing dedication to Western Health, ranging from 10 years through to 50 years of service. Three staff members celebrated 40 years of service, five celebrated 45 years of service and two celebrated a huge 50 years of service – that’s more than 400 years at Western Health between them! 

See the full photo gallery here.

 

 

 

 

 

End-of-year BBQs

Thank you to all who attended our end-of-year staff BBQs across our campuses. It was great to enjoy a bite to eat and an end-of-year catch up.

See the full photo gallery here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas cheer at Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s 

Sandy and I were joined by Directors from local NDIS provider Symcare – a corporate partner of the Western Health Foundation – in JKWC to hand out fun and educational toys to kids on the ward at the time and also those who will be spending the festive season in hospital. Thanks to the Symcare team for generously donating these gifts to support our community. The looks of joy and gratitude on the faces of the young members of our community were very special.