The then Queensland Premier Peter Beattie gets his blood pressure checked at St Vincent's Private Hospital Northside
Ahead of the official opening, the project was placed on the Queensland Parliamentary record in a speech by the local ALP Member for Stafford, Terry Sullivan, on April 1, 2001 after visiting the almost complete hospital. He told the Parliament:
“In terms of the major metropolitan hospitals, this is the major co-located hospital in Queensland and the benefits are enormous to public patients as well as private patients.
There will be no detrimental effect on public health patients. In fact, by providing this facility, patients are going to have a greater choice of private services at the Holy Spirit Northside. Also, some of the specialists, who I have been told are flocking to work at the Holy Spirit Northside, will make their services available to Queensland Health if they are needed.”
"Over the years, St Vincent’s has grown to attract a wide range of specialties which are supportive of each other. There’s pleasant rivalry among specialists in their own medical cohort, but there’s great co-operation and mutual respect among all of us," said Dr Donnelly.
"There’s also a good balance of specialties across the hospital now and so many which are complementary disciplines such as cardiology, renal and vascular as well as an overriding shared commitment and passion for providing excellent patient outcomes. You always feel as if there’s someone you can ring at St Vincent’s Private Hospital Northside to consult with or to refer patients to, for additional high-quality care.
The entire team at St Vincent’s – from the administration and support staff to the nursing and ward staff are exceptional in their commitment to great patient care and excellent health outcomes. And there’s still a family feel about – you know many of the staff and in many cases you know their families and you’ve followed their families growing up and you know what their kids are studying!”
Dr Liz Donnelly from Queensland Cardiovascular Group
Dr Bill Donnelly from Brisbane Orthopaedic Specialist Services
“To a certain extent it was a brave move by St Vincent’s Health given that most specialists back then were centrally located in the city on Wickham Terrace – but there was a mentality of, “If you build it, they will come,"" added Dr Bill Donnelly.
"Some of the specialists and their practices were included in the planning stages of the hospital and our feedback was sought which was greatly appreciated at the time.
It was created as a medium-sized hospital and that can be both a blessing and a curse. But that’s one of the many things that St Vincent’s has done well over the years and continues to do well – stay at that medium size where, through having great people and great teamwork you provide great healthcare, but you still manage to maintain excellent personal care for patients and something of a ‘big family’ feel about the hospital. It’s small enough to be collegiate and the Executive has worked closely with the specialists from Day 1 to today, which has been an excellent recipe for success.
St Vincent’s has also been a real trailblazer in keeping pace with, and often leading, the adoption of evolving technology. We were just the second private hospital in Australia (by just a few days) to introduce a robotics system for orthopaedic surgery with the Stryker Mako system and we’re now, I think, the fourth largest in the country in terms of the numbers of robotics procedures each year.
The hospital has grown every year and I guess it’s now bulging at the seams as more specialists have watched the success of the hospital. GPs have voted with their referrals and patients have voted with their feet, so obviously collectively and individually, we’re all doing something right.”
“On our anniversary, my mind turns to the thousands of staff who have provided compassionate care to hundreds of thousands of patients over our first 23 years," said St Vincent's Private Hospital Northside Chief Executive Officer, Oli Steele.
Also we are very mindful and appreciative of how those who went before us, had the foresight to relocate from the Brisbane medical precinct in the CBD and had the courage and vision to seize the opportunity.”
Oli Steele, Chief Executive Officer of St Vincent's Private Hospital Northside and St Vincent's Private Hospital Brisbane
“I was a new nursing recruit in the cardiac ward, who joined the hospital from the Wesley Hospital. I remember we had five days of orientation before the hospital opened and there was great excitement and energy about being part of something new," said Sheree Todoreskov, General Manager/Director of Clinical Services at St Vincent's Private Hospital Northside.
Our then Director of Mission, Margaret Vider told us during that orientation that we should be enormously proud of being part of history and that it was a phenomenal opportunity to help to grow a new hospital from the ground up and to mould it into something great – and I think that’s what we’ve all done over 23 years.
A lot of the ‘original crew’ are still here. I think there’s still something like 20 staff who have been here since Day 1. We had to all be fairly flexible in that first year and to learn to pivot to what we had to do and what we needed to do with the patient focus always being front and centre from the outset.
I think we’re all proud of the reputation that we’ve helped to build and being at the forefront of adoption of the right technology at the right time to provide patients with the best opportunity for treatment, care and recovery.”
