National President’s Message

As I write this report, the gradual return to ‘COVIDnormal’ is gaining momentum after what has been an extraordinary journey. The last 20 months or so has been life changing for many of us and as we start to look to the future and how we can adapt to the new ‘business as usual’, I have had pause to reflect on what impact this may have on our industry and also our organisation.

Facility managers and engineers have been at the forefront of the response and there is certainly some great momentum in the industry now regarding the profile of these functions with the operations of healthcare facilities.

Change has become the clear constant of this pandemic. We have changed how we work, how we interact with others, how we shop, how we spend our time. And we have changed how we do our work as health facility professionals.

Health governance entities are already starting to look at integrating pandemic response into facility design and operational policy. Certainly from my experience and research there is a particular focus regarding the need for facilities to optimise building efficiency and flexible asset utilisation, to enable rapid mobilisation of pandemic plans.

I’m sure many, if not all, IHEA members have had some exposure to their workplace COVID response and this is a great opportunity to encourage new and existing members to network and communicate their respective learnings. I’m also looking forward to being able to share our collective experiences at both a national and state level once border restrictions are finally lifted and travelling returns to normal.

With the above in mind it is timely to remind all members that the 2022 IHEA National Conference themed “21st Century Healthcare Engineering” is being held in Perth, WA on May 11th -13th, 2022.

Finally I’d like to thank and welcome our new corporate members and also express my appreciation to the national board and CEO for steering the organisation through some extremely trying times

Stay Safe

Jon Gowdy – IHEA National President