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A YEAR OF GREAT CARE I’d like to begin by introducing myself as the new Chief Executive Officer at the RCH. Although I have only been in the role for a few months, I have already had the privilege of seeing the life changing impact of your support first hand. On behalf of all the patients, families, and staff at the RCH, thank you for another year of incredible generosity and support. Last year, the RCH celebrated its 150th anniversary. While that gave us a wonderful opportunity to reflect on how far we have come as a hospital—and as a community—it also gave us the chance to look towards the future and plan how we can grow as world-leaders in paediatric healthcare. Thanks to your support, the RCH this year launched the Centre for Health Analytics. The first of its kind in Australia, the Centre will enable the use of data to improve patient care, operations, education and research across the Melbourne Children’s Campus. There are four initial projects already underway which will inform future initiatives around the campus, and I very much look forward to seeing where these take us in delivering patient care.
THE IMPACT OF GIVING
your support, we have made important progress in this space by launching our Virtual Care Strategy. Over the next five years, the RCH will continue to drive new, remote ways of caring, linking patients, clinicians and the wider community together to allow patient care to be accessible at home, in the community, as well as in hospital. Ultimately, our vision is to leverage virtual care technology to enable the best care in the best place at the right time. These are only a few examples of the way philanthropy enables us to deliver care, not just to patients inside the hospital,but into communities and homes across Victoria and Australia. It is a privilege to see how many lives we have changed thanks to the support from the RCH Foundation and their generous community of donors and supporters. On behalf of everyone here at the RCH, thank you for helping us create one of the best children’s hospitals in the world. Bernadette McDonald Chief Executive Officer, The Royal Children’s Hospital
Of course, it’s been another challenging year for us all, including our children— which is why I’m proud that this year with our partners we launched the Melbourne Children’s Campus Mental Health Strategy. This strategy will develop an integrated program of high quality mental health support for children focussing on early identification and intervention to ensure the best possible health outcomes, as well as improve mental health literacy for carers, staff and the community. Underpinning everything we do at the RCH is our mission of delivering great care, everywhere. This year, thanks to
Bernadette McDonald, Chief Executive Officer, The RCH