GSHS Staff Recognised for Long Service

Deb Howard, Jacqui Gilliatte, Marg Hanks, Wayne Dahan, Leanne Keating, Debbie Staples from Hospitality.

Steven Doyle – Director of Nursing Korumburra, Tracey Edmonds – MFW Nurse Unit Manager, Ian Drysdale – Board Member and Mark Johnson – CEO.

Paola Munoz, Diversional Therapist at Koorooman House with her very special therapy pets and children Rose & Maeve Bowler, Alayna Walsh, Niya Manavalan and Bristo Poly.

Barbara Dwyer – District Nurse.

Registered Nurses, Shiju & Divya Manavalan, Bristo and Cienna Poly and Personal Care Attendant, Remya Varghese.

Mandy Fletcher, Physio and Judy Heenan from Hospitality.

Around 170 Gippsland Southern Health Service staff, with a total of 2965 years’ service between them, received a Long Service Award after achieving 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 or 40 years’ service. The 170 staff were invited to attend a special ceremony held at the Korumburra and Leongatha Hospitals to celebrate their long careers working at GSHS.

The event coincided with the annual GSHS staff and family end-of-year BBQ, where the Executive Team donned aprons and tongs and cooked for everyone. This year Santa spread cheer throughout both hospitals, before grabbing a quick sausage at the staff BBQ and disappearing to his next destination. We also had some very special four-legged “unofficial” staff join us – Paola Munoz, Diversional Therapist at Koorooman House, brought in her pet therapy animals, an Alpaca and three very cute dogs.

Board of Management, Vice President, Sue Fleming, presented the staff in Leongatha their service badges, whilst Board Member, Ian Drysdale presented the badges in Korumburra.

One of the 40-year award recipients, Janet Arrott-Watt, reflected on her years at GSHS. Janet started at the Woorayl District Memorial Hospital (which is now the Leongatha Hospital), on a three month traineeship and ended up as the Human Resources Manager. Janet has been actively trying to retire for the last couple of years, but she keeps getting called in for shifts, due to her vast expanse of knowledge with all things GSHS.

Approximately 31% of our over 500 staff members, have been here for more than 10 years. CEO, Mark Johnson, commented that “it is a testament that Gippsland Southern Health Service is a great place to work“.