Michael led the Group Vocational Exchange ['GVE'] to the Philippines in February and March.  The new look format of exchange has a strong focus on vocation with relevance to RI’s Foundation concerns, which in precis are all about health, education and peace.

 

During the GVE, Michael engaged with a number of educational institutions to experience the performing arts programs for many of the children, focusing on:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Professor Euan Wallace is the inaugural CEO of Safer Care Victoria, the peak state authority for leading quality and safety improvement in healthcare. Safer Care Victoria was established to oversee and support health services to provide safe, high-quality care to patients every time, everywhere. As well as monitoring the standards of care provided, Safer Care Victoria is partnering with consumers and their families, clinicians and health services to support the continuous improvement of healthcare.

 

The agency was created in response to the recommendations within the report, Targeting Zero: Supporting the Victorian Hospital System [click to see full report] to eliminate avoidable harm and strengthen quality of care.

 

Euan commenced his presentation by explaining how the international airline industry and supporting national regulators routinely take very rapid, tightly integrated, highly systematic and transparent approaches to airline safety incidents. Furthermore, he stated that this industry had robust processes to implement and monitor rapid change with and within every international airline operator. For example, he reported that global changes to the airline industry had been implemented within two months of the German Wings Flight 9525 crash.

 

Euan explained that this approach was light-years away from current practice evident in the health care industry. He noted the systematic failure at Bacchus Marsh hospital: this facility experienced a cluster of abnormal infant deaths, even though the hospital had passed all quality accreditation hurdles “with flying colours”. He listed the various reports which had determined the root cause of similar clusters of deaths and injury at many hospitals in Australia and the UK over a period of 30 years, and noted that the findings and recommendations of each enquiry, unlike the airline industry, had made no impact on the emergence of a similar cluster at a different hospital. He had explained, in effect, 30 years of health service disasters, all of which had common causes.

 

The challenge of his agency is to focus health care organisations more on:

This was a presentation in which all members engaged, and questions could have gone much longer than time permitted.

In the meantime, stay healthy!

 

 

PP Marjorie updated members on the activity of The Rotary Foundation (‘TRF’).

 

TRF has achieved a “four star” rating for the ninth consecutive year in terms of Financial Health, Transparency and Accountability. Marjorie reminded members that Rotary Central Melbourne was a regular recipient of TRF funds.  There are several options for members to make personal donations to TRF to support domestic and International beneficiaries.