Sydney
10 March 2002
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Dates set for saints
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Pope urged to ban his photo from club
Patients are patients, not clients: archbishop on St Vincent’s visit
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Patients are patients, not clients: archbishop on St Vincent’s visit
Hospital chief executive Mary Foley and Archbishop Pell
By Kathleen Carmody
Catholic health should not become “submerged in finance”, the Archbishop of Sydney, Archbishop Pell, said on a visit to the Darlinghurst campus of the recently amalgamated St Vincent’s and Mater Health Sydney.
“For example,” he said, “I never like patients to be referred to as clients.
“I don’t like that sort of economic language because it can really start to influence ways of thinking.
“We’re here to serve people,” the archbishop said. “That humanitarian (aspect) is central to the Catholic tradition.”
Dr Pell described St Vincent’s and Mater Health as a flagship of Catholic health and a national front-runner in heart and lung transplant surgery.
“It’s a great organ of service and I certainly will do everything to see that it maintains this level of service and that it maintains and even improves its forefront position in medicine and in research.”
Archbishop Pell donned a hard hat to tour the new facility which will link the public and private hospitals and provide more integrated and seamless delivery of patient treatment and care.
The archbishop described the new building as very impressive.
“The new building and the way it’s integrating the public and private hospitals and the operating theatres (and) intensive care – to an untutored layman it seems to be very, very impressive,” he said.
Archbishop Pell visited the hospital chapel (the site of Archbishop Polding’s death in 1877), the Garvan and Victor Chang Institutes and the nearly-completed $98 million Xavier building, a major component of the $169 million St Vincent’s campus redevelopment.
The chief executive of the hospital, Ms Mary Foley, told Dr Pell that St Vincent’s and Mater Health represents a viable third force within the NSW healthcare system.
She said St Vincent’s and Mater Health was “one of the most exciting and innovative partnerships, (which) has seen the creation of a major force within Catholic health care in NSW and the NSW public and private systems”.
The redevelopment is due for completion in April.
During his tour, the archbishop met a patient, Michael Brownell, who had recently undergone a successful left lung transplant, a procedure for which the hospital is renowned.
Mr Brownell, from Clare Valley, South Australia, was in hospital for further surgery to his damaged right lung.
His prognosis was good according to his surgeon, Dr Phillip Spratt, and he would be going home soon.