Happy New Year and welcome back to Rotary for 2016.
It was great to see so many at our first meeting for the year hosted by St John of God Hospital with a big thanks to Darren Rogers CEO and Alastair Greenall, Manager, Hospital Redevelopment who provided an insight and update on the Hospital and its redevelopment.
The $50 million expansion includes a new three storey inpatient wing, Stage 1, to the east of the current hospital, extending half way across Lily Street adding up to 72 new beds.
The redevelopment, stage 2, will see the reconfiguring of the theatre layout to improve patient flow, refurbishing the existing theatres and adding an additional theatre and more recovery beds. A new inpatient rehabilitation unit will occupy the top floor, including a gymnasium and 'Activities of Daily Living', dining room, kitchen, bathroom and laundry. Existing Rooms will receive a makeover and the front entrance will have a major upgrade with additional interview rooms and waiting areas.
Traffic flow changes and new a car park will significantly improve access to the hospital with approximately 50 extra car parks.
Whilst we don’t want to be in a position to use the services of St John of God, it is great to know that it continues to provide top quality, modern health services.
We have had a request from District for assistance with the incoming Group Vocational Exchange from the Philippines (formerly known as Group Study Exchange). The team arrive in Australia from Saturday 13th February and will be Visiting the Bendigo Region arriving on the 6th March and departing on the 13th after conference.
District are looking for home hosting for the five Philippine guests and possible suitable relevant workplace visits for each of them. Their interests include
· Economic and Community Development - Including Tourism
· Disease Prevention and treatment / Maternal and Child health
· Water / Wastewater
· Education / Literacy
Further information is available including profiles of the visitor is available upon on request
If any Rotarians could home host or help with the workplace visits, please contact me ASAP as the time is approaching quickly.
At the meeting I handed out the Club feedback/survey, we would like these completed and returned either electronically or in paper form by the 27th January. We would like every Rotarian to complete every question on the Survey. I will also email a copy of the survey to all members and will have some further hard copies at out next meeting, 20th January at Bendigo TAFE. We will also have some time at our next meeting to complete the survey and answer any question you might have. Please feel free to add additional comments or thoughts that may not be covered in the survey.
See you all next week
Paul
