Interviews from the Frontline

Professor Brian Dolan is the originator of the #Last1000Days global social movement to value patients’ time. Originally from Ireland, he is a dual-qualified emergency and mental health nurse and is Honorary Adjunct Professor of Innovation in Healthcare at Bond University on the Gold Coast.  Following his keynote presentation at our Last 1000 Days meeting, Brian joined us to record a podcast interview about his career, how we can better support patients during their last 1000 days, his philosophy that while staffs’ time is important the patient’s time is sacred and how this informs his approach to service redesign, and his work to end PJ paralysis. We even find out which member of the Royal Family Brian met when he received an OBE ‘For Services to Nursing and Emergency Care’ in the UK. 

On this R U Okay Day, we take a look back at a snippet (7 minutes) of our podcast interview with Dr Liz Crowe sharing some of her tips to help us fill our tanks, feel less stressed, create space to look after our wellbeing, and be more engaged. Liz spent 25 years as a social worker, predominantly in paediatric intensive care and critical care and during that time developed a passion for clinician wellbeing and started researching how she could support her colleagues. Her passion recently became her profession, and Liz now draws on her clinical experience and research in her role as a staff wellbeing consultant, counsellor and coach at the Royal Women’s and Children’s Hospital.  

Professor Ian Scott is a familiar face at the Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH). For 28 years he was the PAH’s Director of Internal Medicine before stepping down in 2024. During that time, he’s seen many changes, taken on a variety of leadership roles and led many important clinical projects. As Ian steps into the next chapter of his life – combining semi-retirement with a part-time role focused on AI in healthcare for Metro South - we talk to him about medicine, his interest in AI and the highlights from a long and distinguished healthcare career.

Dr Rizsa Albarracin grew up in abject poverty in a remote jungle in the Philippines. At age 12, she left her village on her own to pursue an education in the hope of breaking the poverty cycle and seeing the world.Fast forward a decade or more, a medical science degree, a PhD in Vision Neuroscience, world travel and a new-found passion for climate change, and Rizsa landed a job with Queensland Health’s Office of Hospital Sustainability as lead for climate risk and adaptation.  On the back of the Senate’s ‘Climate Change and Healthcare’ meeting, we speak with Rizsa about Queensland Health’s actions to reduce emissions and its impact on the climate, and how she is giving back to her village in the Philippines.

As a young girl, Liz Wilkes didn’t like the sight of blood, so when she told her parents she wanted to be a midwife, they ‘never imagined in a million years it could happen’. But the girlfrom Taree, on the NSW mid north coast, followed her dream and pursued a career in midwifery.  That career has taken Liz from the Hunter Valley to London and now Queensland, where she became Queensland Health’s first Chief Midwife Officer in 2024. In this episode of ‘Interviews from the Frontline’, we talk to Liz about her almost 30-year career as a midwife and her priorities in the top job.

As a clinician leader, Dr Kellie Wren wears multiple hats, her newest being Chair of the Queensland Clinical Senate. We spoke with Kellie about why she took on the role of Chair and what she hopes to achieve during her time in the job.  As the daughter of a plumber and a seamstress, Kellie also shares with us the moment she declared she wanted to become a doctor, why she chose anaesthetics and, as a busy doctor and medical administrator, how she relaxes by doing things she’s really bad at. 

As an Aboriginal child born in 1966, Dr Louis Peachey says the idea of going to medical school was ‘never on the cards’. But life had other ideas, and he became the first member of his family to not only attend university, but to become a medical doctor. In 2021, Dr Peachey was awarded Life Membership of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine.We spoke with Dr Peachey about how he ended up at medical school, his career as a rural generalist and the dual role he takes on that has an incredible impact on every young doctor and medical student he supervises.The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast interview are the interviewee’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Queensland Health or the Queensland Clinical Senate.

Rural Generalist Dr Emily Moody wears many professional hats – Senior Medical Officer at Boonah Health Service, West Moreton Hospital and Health Service, Co-Chair of the Queensland Rural and Remote Clinical Network, and Chair of the Queensland Clinical Networks Executive, to name just three! Originally from Cairns, Emily spoke to us about her many roles, how she finds balance between work and a young family, why she is as passionate about her career today as she was 15years ago as an intern and why she encourages others to consider rural medicine.

As a long jumper, Bronwyn Thompson made it to the top her her game, representing Australia at the Commonwealth Games and the Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Olympics. Among her many career highlights is making a come back to win gold at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne after being told she'd never jump again following a knee injury. Bronwyn's 'I'll prove you wrong' attitude, along with her incredible support team, is what she credits for her recovery. Bronwyn now uses all of the lessons and experience as an elite athlete in her work as a paediatric physiotherapist to ensure every child has the best chance of success and reaching their potential.

As a young registered nurse, Josh Stafford took a six-week contract in the Far North Queensland town of Aurukun to make a bit of money. But by day 3 on the job, he'd fallen in love with it and knew this was the type of nursing he was meant to do. So while money took him there, it was the people, the diversity, the freedom and acuity that has kept him nursing in remote communities for close on 16 years. Today, Josh is the Director of Nursing for Lockhart River and Coen, a small, predominantly Indigenous community in northern Queensland with a population close to 700. We talk to Josh about his job as a nursing leader in a rural town, his early career nursing in big cities and how he spends his days off.

Dr Tony Brown has had a long and distinguished career as a rural generalist. From general practice principal in rural Victoria, to Executive Director of Medical Services in Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service (HHS) and now Chief Executive for South West HHS. We spoke with Tony, a former member of the Senate Executive, about his career in rural medicine and what drives his life’s mission to address the inequity of health outcomes for rural and remote Australians. 

In part 2 of our two part green shoots podcast series, we talk to 4 healthcare leaders about initiatives aimed to improve access to care for Queenslanders and support our system to be sustainable into the future. Presented as part of the Senate’s Reimagining Healthcare meeting series, we talk to:  Dr Mark Waters, Rapid Access Specialty Care Mr Matt Page, eConsults (starts at 5:10) Dr Kim Hansen, Metro North Virtual ED (starts at 10:35) Dr Gaurav Puri, VOICeD (starts at 17:12).

There are so many great projects underway across Queensland Health to improve access to care for Queenslanders and support our system to be sustainable into the future. And we’re thrilled to bring you a snippet of just a few of them in a special two-part green shoots podcast event. Presented as part of the Senate’s Reimagining Healthcare meeting series, the series features short interviews with 8 initiative leaders who share the what, why and how of their projects along with the outcomes. In this first episode, we speak to:  A/Prof Craig Hukins, Community Based Multidisciplinary Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Clinic  Dr Ellen Burkett, Residential Aged Care Facility Acute Support Service (RASS) (starts at 7:37) Dr Sabe Sabesan, Telechemotherapy (starts at 16:24) Damian Coe, Virtual fracture clinic (starts at 20:57)

When you think of the Queensland's Health Contact Centre (HCC), you might only think of 13 HEALTH. But the centre provides so much more than that. We spoke to the Health Contact Centre's Executive Director Victoria Chalmers to find out just how many services it provides (you'll be surprised), its role during COVID-19 and how the and how the HCC quickly responds to the needs of Queenslanders and the health system. 

Dr Dan Holmes is a Specialist Anaesthetist and AUSMat Mission Team Leader. For the past 10 years and following his first mission to the Philippines (working in anaesthetics and ICU), Dan has led teams of experienced Australian clinicians to respond to disasters in Samoa, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Fiji. In early 2020, Dan was deployed to Christmas Island, where the team assisted in the repatriation of Australians from Wuhan, China, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dan recently received the Overseas Humanitarian Service Medal for his work in the Philippines and Vanuatu. In this interview with Dan, we talk about his career, his missions with AUSMat and one of the many experiences that will stay with him.

Dr Liz Whiting was appointed Clinical Lead for Queensland Health's new Reform Office earlier this year. A physician and geriatrician with more than 30 years experience, we spoke with Liz about why she chose medicine, her impressive career to date and her focus for the health system in her new reform role.

Professor Clair Sullivan is a passionate and experienced endocrinologist who is a leader in digital health for Queensland. We spoke with Clair about how she found herself in digital health. And, on the back of the Senate's 'Transforming Flow' meeting, Clair talks about the new study she has co-authored about why access block is not all about the emergency department and the need to understand the complex interactions  a consumer has in the care system throughout their journey and across the many interjurisdictional and intersectoral boundaries.

Even as a young graduate nurse, Jed Duff was always trying to influence change and implement evidence-based practice when he saw opportunities for improvement. But when he couldn't find evidence to fix the problems he came across, Jed decided it was time to start creating his own. This was the beginning of his successful research career. Professor Jed Duff is now the Chair of Nursing for Queensland's largest hospital, the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, and continues his career-long mission to solve 'real world' problems to improve patient outcomes using evidence-based innovations.

Leia Barnes is one of only a handful of consultant vestibular physiotherapists in Australia and is passionate about the world of  ‘dizziness and balance’. So when a call for ideas to reduce pressures on the Emergency Department came across her desk, Leia came up with ‘Dial a Dizzy’, a telehealth hotline to help clinicians across Queensland diagnose and treat vertigo. Dial a Dizzy gives patients the right care, at the right time in the right place - allowing them to get back to their normal life with just one or two short treatments. Dial a Dizzy is now supporting 19 hospitals – and growing - across Queensland.

Jenny Timor has worked with some of the most vulnerable people in her community, from First Nations youth detained in the police watchhouse, to people living on the streets.  And now as Coordinator of the Indigenous Youth Team for the Mackay Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service, Jenny is working with young people experiencing severe turmoil who are 'running to stand still'. We spoke with Jenny about her work, how her mum has influenced her life, and what she wants people to know during this National Reconciliation Week.