A Note of Appreciation

As many of you may or may not know, I’m currently interviewing for jobs up in Hamilton, a much larger city of 125,000 about an hour an a half south of Auckland. It’s a move to be closer to my kiwi bloke and test the waters of cohabitation. It also comes with a lot of mixed feelings. When I joined the staff of Ruanui Health Centre over 15 months ago it was in turmoil (and I don’t use that word lightly). They were disorganized, lacked a desperately needed second doctor, triage of patients involved overloading the present doctor with double booking appointments multiple times throughout the day, thus making the workload horrendous, and there was a lot of political infighting amongst the different staff and between the clinic and its governing body. Let’s just say it was not a pleasant place to work. Yet, with a lot of perseverance and ingenuity from new staff that came on board, the clinic slowly turned around. They are now committed to having two doctors on staff at all times (even if that means getting a retired physician in to help out), the nurses hum with the triage of patients and with accomplishing their own personal clinics, and the staff as a whole enjoy coming to work. Sure there are still moments of disagreement, but as a whole it’s a lovely place to work. Staff are smiling, joking with each other and most importantly, patients are being looked after well and are very pleased with the way they are cared for both from the clinical staff and from the community staff. They feel like they’re being surrounded with support. In essence, we’ve all become one “family” looking after each other. Given this change, you can probable appreciate my reservations in leaving this working environment. It’s something that’s become dramatically clear as I’ve interviewed at different practices in Hamilton. Don’t get me wrong, most clinics are well run and have a jovial environment, but none have come close to capturing that all encompassing feeling of support. So as I negotiate salaries and psychologically prepare myself for my move to Hamilton, I want to express my appreciation for all Ruanui Health Centre is doing for the people of the community and all the support they’ve provided me. Thank you.