Steady ship in stormy seas
IN A YEAR INVOLVING A GLOBAL PANDEMIC AND A VOLATILE CYCLONE SEASON PREDICTED, FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCE IN DISASTER RESPONSE HAS STOOD THE FAR NORTH’S NEW HEALTH BOSS IN GOOD STEAD, WRITES PETE MARTINELLI
DISASTERS are not a thing to be feared for the chief executive of the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital Health Service. They are the comfort zone.
Tina Chinery stepped into the hot seat in an acting role in March and was officially endorsed earlier this month.
Staring down the barrel of a potentially eventful cyclone season and keeping a close eye on an ongoing global pandemic, the seasoned health care professional has been held in good stead by a career working in disaster-prone rural areas.
In 2007, she moved to Western Australia’s Pilbara region as a nursing director in time for the most violent cyclone to hit Port Headland since Cyclone Joan in 1975.
“On my third day, Cyclone George came through. One of the mines was impacted and there were some deaths,” Ms Chinery said.
“There were a lot of lessons through that and afterwards we implemented some really good disaster response mechanisms, some of which I have implemented here in Cairns.”
The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted a stormy wet season due to La Nina conditions, with a higher-than-average chance of cyclone and flooding.
“Clearly we are getting prepared for the upcoming cyclone season,” Ms Chinery said.
“Cairns South Medical Facility opened a few weeks ago and we have designed that as an interim ED centre, which is fantastic, as it gives us other options if something were to happen.
“There’s nothing else like it. We are asking our ED staff to go down and begin practising.
“The plan will be to shelter in place and evacuations are the last resort.”
The looming wet follows a year dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the early months of which held nervous dread for health staff in the Far North.
“I took over in March, when we had our first cases,” Ms Chinery said.
“The predictions at that time were quite significant. I think we thought we would be in a position quite different to where we did.
“I think it’s because of all the good work of all the staff and the community. If the community had not taken the actions that they did, it could have been a lot worse.
“COVID has taught us we need to be prepared for rapid and significant change.
“In my time in health care I saw people change the way they practised and I think that has to now stay, I think. Our
TINA CHINERY STEPPED IN AS CHHHS CEO IN AN ACTING ROLE IN MARCH AND WAS OFFICIALLY ENDORSED FOR THE POSITION EARLIER THIS MONTH.
clinicians, admin staff, cleaners, everyone has to be more adaptive to change around the environment and infrastructure.”
Disasters and pandemics notwithstanding, Ms Chinery said the road forward for the CHHHS would be heavily invested in the drive to the
Cairns University Hospital and in improving health outcomes for Indigenous residents.
“We are looking at ways to provide specialist care closer to home in the Torres Strait and Cape York,” Ms Chinery said.
“We noticed that people did not come for care during COVID and that was concerning in its own right.
“We have to modify the way we do things to ensure people’s needs are met.
“It’s all about primary health care. We are still seeing diseases like rheumatic heart disease. There are chronic diseases that should not be there.
“There are opportunities to wipe out some of the disease burdens we have seen. You have to have a co-ordinated plan for that.
“We are trying to wipe out kidney disease. Renal disease is something that can be prevented.”
She said measures like the CHHHS cardiac outreach team and the case to build the university hospital were part of that fight on disease.
A preliminary business case has begun for the hospital upgrade and the State Government has allocated funds to acquire land.
“We are on the road, which is really exciting,” Ms Chinery said.
But she said the next year’s biggest challenge remained the ongoing COVID crisis.
“If there is a significant outbreak, that will have a large impact on us, but I am very confident the staff here have a can do attitude and are very experienced. I am confident we are prepared for the year ahead,” she said.
I THINK IT’S BECAUSE OF ALL THE GOOD WORK OF ALL THE STAFF AND THE COMMUNITY; IF THE COMMUNITY HAD NOT TAKEN THE ACTIONS THAT THEY DID, IT COULD HAVE BEEN A LOT WORSE.
TINA CHINERY