Dr Clare Ramsden is the Executive Director of Allied Health at Hospitals South in the Tasmanian Health Service. Her role encompasses both operational and professional leadership responsibilities, working alongside the Executive Director of Medical Services and the Executive Director of Nursing and Midwifery to ensure high quality professional standards across the workforce.
Allied Health Services at Hospitals South covers ten disciplines, including occupational therapy, physiotherapy, social work, podiatry, psychology, nutrition, dietetics, speech pathology, audiology, orthotics, prosthetics, and chaplaincy. These disciplines report operationally to the Executive Director of Allied Health, providing services across the full spectrum of care provided at Hospitals South, from emergency department care to outpatient and community-based services.
One notable program run by Hospitals South is the ABLE program, or Allied Health Building Leadership Experience. This program was created to address the challenge of allied health professionals being seen as a single entity, rather than as individual disciplines, when it comes to leadership and management opportunities. The program is delivered entirely internally, with seminars presented by senior staff and mentorship opportunities for participants to become more effective representatives of allied health in meetings and working groups.
Allied Health Services at Hospitals South is known for its dynamic workplace culture, which emphasises collaboration, creativity, and enthusiasm for providing high-quality care to the community. While productivity is important, there is no single measure that works for all of the different disciplines involved in Allied Health Services. The focus is on delivering efficient, appropriate, and high-quality care in a collaborative model that includes nursing and medicine as well.
According to Dr Ramsden, Hospitals South provides an opportunity to gain a breadth of experience for new graduates, which they might not get in larger hospitals. The hospital offers allied health representation roles, mentoring roles, and leadership roles. With almost 20 years of experience in allied health, Dr Clare Ramsden has been able to work in different countries, engage in research, and gauge quality improvement. She believes that allied health provides a broad career for people interested in any aspect of health service provision. Hospitals South strives to offer opportunities for allied health services to staff, enabling them to make the most of their interests, whether in clinical leadership, management and formal leadership, education and training, workforce development, or quality improvement.
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Belonging in a medical device company
Edith de Boer is the HR Director for Zimmer Biomet in Australia and New Zealand. Her career originally was in telecommunications and consulting in Europe. After leaving The Netherlands, Edith worked into the Australian medical research industry, before moving into a human resources role at Zimmer Biomet. Edith spoke to Australian Health Journal about her role and the organisation.
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Paediatric mental help for children of defence personnel, veterans and first responders
Dr Marg Rogers is a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Education at University of New England (UNE) in Armidale, New South Wales. She is a prominent figure in early childhood education New South Wales, and is also a Post Doctoral Fellow at the Manna Institute, a mental health research organisation within the regional university network across Australia, that is building place based research capacity to improve the mental health of regional, rural and remote Australia.
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Continuity of Care under COVID-19
Series 3, Episode 1
Under the COVID-19 pandemic, the Australian Healthcare system has handled the public health crisis by monitoring and responding to challenges in supply chains, testing & tracing of new infections and stock piling of essential equipment.
The public has largely responded by practising social distancing, understanding how hand hygiene can spread contagion and recently installing the COVIDSafe mobile application. Public health messaging has been largely effective and literacy improve, to combat the dangers of misinformation.
To open up access to medical advice during the pandemic, in March the Australian government issued MBS item codes for telehealth consultations, for advanced practice nurses as well as GPs and other specialists.
According to AMA President Dr Tony Bartone, as of mid-May 2020, around 10 million Medicare-funded telehealth services have been provided, either over the phone or via video, a significant majority of which have been provided by GPs and other specialists since the Medicare telehealth items were introduced in March.
However in recent months, the health system has mounting concerns on:
- a reduction in general practice visits for testing, investigation or immunisation
- lower rates of elective procedures resuming since being halted
- reduction in laboratory testing
- reduction in treatments and diagnosis of chronic and acute conditions
- access to, and continuing to take medications
Those with pre-existing conditions have been urged to keep appointments and routine treatments to maintain their health.
Industry has taken action such as the newly formed Continuity of Care Collaboration (CCC). The 15 health organisations forming CCC are an Australian first national communication collaboration of Peak Bodies, Industry and Healthcare Organisations coming together to stress the importance for people to continue monitoring their health and maintaining their regular care.
This Australian Health Journal episode on the continuity of care was produced with commentary from the following health industry associations and organisations: APNA – Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association, RACGP, Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA), West Cessnock Medical Practice, Consumers Health Forum of Australia, Medicines Australia
