New director for health service

FORMER CEO of Stawell Regional Health, Kate Pryde, has been appointed the new Grampians Health regional director of hospitals – east.

Ms Pryde has been employed to oversee the operations of Ballarat’s public hospital services, and the broader Grampians health medicine and emergency services strategies.

“I have come to Ballarat with a solid understanding of the challenges and benefits of our western campuses and I’m a voice for the west in the east,” she said.

“I have a very strong partnership with Carolyn Robertson, regional director hospitals – west, in the way we work together to uncover challenges but utilise our region-wide connections to find solutions too.

“I talk a lot about the mind and the might of Grampians Health. The coming together of great minds from what were four separate health services, to strategically work together for the service, growth and development of healthcare of such a big region is what it’s all about.”

Ms Pryde was originally a registered nurse, and is experienced in critical care, emergency, trauma, outback nursing and midwifery, and hospital management.

She also holds a masters of business administration and degree in education and previously worked in China and the Middle East before moving back to Australia and entering public health.

“I was really shocked by the disparity between metropolitan and rural health services, and I became really passionate about equalising healthcare for our rural communities but also for those working in the sector,” she said.

“Public healthcare also creates opportunities for connection to community, and that’s something that really motivates me and is important to me in healthcare.

“It’s a really important piece of Grampians Health too, as we build our structure and our services based on a lot of community and consumer feedback.”

Ms Pryde said offering more attractive opportunities for healthcare professionals to remain working regionally, and develop their skillset within the organisation, is something Grampians Health is aiming for as part of this operational structure.

“Our early integration project brought a lot of key stakeholders in the region together, and has already created opportunities for professional development and transition out of Ballarat into the region to share the knowledge of and access to experts in all sorts of areas, from speciality care to things like occupational health and safety as well,” she said.

“We have an opportunity now to achieve so much more on the back of innovations like telehealth, whereas smaller health services it would have been really hard to capitalise on those things.

“We’re redeveloping and redesigning services for our communities in our western region, so they can have greater access closer to home.”