Future Direction

The Sesquicentenary of St Vincent’s Hospital in 2007 noted the 150th anniversary of the health ministry of the Sisters of Charity in Australia and the significant contribution of Catholic health care to the Australian community. The history of St Vincent’s Hospital is one of partnership – the Sisters’ partnership with staff at all levels, with universities, with governments and with the broader community who have always so generously supported our hospital and what it stands for.

Excellent Services linked to Research and Teaching
A key feature of the history has been the close linkage of quality outcomes in health services to teaching and research, all within a framework of care and compassion.

Today St Vincent’s continues to support this model for excellence, linking the latest medical research to the delivery of services to patients.

2006-07 saw great progress in our commitment to research and academic teaching.

The $79 million St Vincent’s Research Precinct Stage 1 Building, which will house the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute and the St Vincent’s Hospital Research Groups, is under construction to be completed by June 2008.
Establishment of an Academic Unit in Palliative Care, based at Sacred Heart Hospice, in partnership with the University of New South Wales, University of Notre Dame and Calvary Health Care. This initiative has been supported by the NSW Cancer Institute, to provide state-wide academic leadership in palliative care best practice.
SV&MHS and the Garvan Institute of Medical Research entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a joint Cancer Centre incorporating cancer treatment and research on the St Vincent’s Research Precinct.
In partnership with the Australian Catholic University, a position of Professor of Nursing Research has been established to lead the development of nursing practice, research and education.

New Technologies
To maintain our services at the forefront of emerging medical technologies, with the assistance of our generous donors, St Vincent’s has continued to invest in major new medical technologies:

St Vincent’s Hospital’s new MRI, which is the most sophisticated scanner available, commenced operation in April 2007.
St Vincent’s Hospital’s new PET scanner commenced operation in early 2007.
The Da Vinci Robotics system, which is operated by St Vincent’s Private, was used for more than 150 cardiac and urology patients in 2006-07, providing minimally invasive surgery for these major procedures, resulting in speedier patient recovery.

Mental Health
In accordance with our commitment to respond to the enormous community need in the area of mental health, St Vincent’s has invested significant resources in developing solutions in public and private health care. In partnership with the NSW Government, construction will commence in April 2008 of a new facility, for public mental health, drug and alcohol and community health services, which will provide an innovative integrated model of care for the inner city mentally ill who are also often homeless and suffer multiple health problems.

New Models of Care
St Vincent’s is committed to developing new models of care in response to patient need and identified service gaps in the community. In March 2007 St Vincent’s Hospital’s Community Outreach Medical Emergency Team commenced a pilot project providing outreach assessment and treatment services for the homeless.

Community Service
In 2006-07 the Sisters of Charity introduced a new framework for reporting its health services’ extra contribution to assist the communities they serve. St Vincent’s & Mater Health Sydney’s first report identified that for 2005-06 SV&MHS, assisted by our generous donors, made social contributions of over $37 million above and beyond the funding received for our core services. These social contributions include:

One-off works of charity to assist individual patients with particular needs;
Community benefit programs, such as SV&MHS’s assistance to the Asylum Seekers Centre in Surry Hills, which go beyond our core services; and
Social accountability projects where we support our core services beyond the level supported by funders. This includes contributions in excess of $29 million in value to support buildings, equipment and additional services in our public health care facilities, as well as our investment in research and teaching in both our public and private hospitals.

Funding
In the first half of 2007, the Board and Executive welcomed an independent funding review of St Vincent’s Hospital by Mr Bob Sendt, former NSW Auditor General. The review was the result of differences in the interpretation of the Memorandum of Understanding between St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, the NSW Minister for Health and the Area Health Service.

The final report findings were handed down in May and confirmed that St Vincent’s is a well managed hospital, facing increased activity, particularly through the Emergency Department. Constructive recommendations for improvements and funding were made and all parties have been working together regarding the best implementation of the recommendations. The Board of SV&MHS would like to thank Mr Sendt and his team for the open, professional and inclusive manner in which the review was conducted.

The Department of Health also supported an independent review of the funding of St Vincent’s Heart Lung Transplantation Service which provides a state-wide service for NSW and some other states. The outcomes of this review are being finalised at the time this report is published.

With over 150 years in health care, aged care, teaching and research, and community service. St Vincent’s would like to acknowledge the work of our Board of Directors, staff members, volunteers and community supporters for their continued dedication and commitment to our endeavours. With this support, we can confidently carry on the tradition of our founding Sisters for a further 150 years, firm in the knowledge that we will still be ‘celebrating our heritage, embracing the future’.