The genesis of Flinders Medical Centre was long before the first patient was admitted on the 6th of April 1976.
The southern suburbs were growing at a rapid rate,
and the premiere of the time; Sir Thomas Playford, was under pressure to build a local hospital.
Coupled with his was the need to train more doctors to meet South Australia's growing population generally.
But rather than just build a hospital,
a team of visionary South Australian pioneers planned something very different.
What they had in mind would change the culture of academic medicine,
practice, and science in South Australia and beyond forever.
They decided to create Australia's first medical school and public teaching hospital
to be fully integrated integrated as a single institution.
a model which integrated patient care,
teaching and research.
Working in an environment of high inflation,
dramatic social change, and the introduction of a new national health scheme; Medicare,
they created an ambitious, unique and groundbreaking institution;
Flinder Medical Centre was born.
When we started Flinders, the driving philosophy
idea behind it, was that we would have what we called integration,
that is; patient care,
teaching and research, all combining, so that,
the curriculum, for example, the medical students
would start seeing patients very early in their courses instead of a traditional course
where people had a couple of years before they saw patients.
That everyone from the University and the hospital would be working together as one workforce,
not two separate mobs.
The building will be a single complex where you couldn't tell what was Flinders Medical Centre,
what was Flinders School of Medicine, they were combined.
In terms of function, one of the important things was to
ensure that we did not have a separate development of Adult Medicine,
Paediatrics, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Mental Health.
They should all be together,
and there should be communication and collaboration between the various disciplines.
Well forty years ago the place was much smaller,
and there was a very strong sense of community,
and you would know everybody,
so I would know all the ED staff having worked there,
all the administrative staff, all the physicians, surgeons, would know them all.
Now the place is so big it's very hard to know all of those things,
but there's still a very strong atmosphere here of community and working hard for the patients.
The facility in the first months of Flinders Medical Centre was a temporary setup.
They had forgotten to build the emergency department,
so we adapted the VIP flats and the Chapel into consulting rooms and a stretcher area.
There was significant camaraderie.
People were very willing to pitch in and help each other out,
they were very proud of what they were about to establish.
So that, I guess, assisted the keeness to really do well and put on an impressive first few months
in very temporary facilities.
My earliest memory of Flinders was the employment
of a large number of staff within a short space of time in 1976.
This was just a few short months before the wards were due to open,
and we had to employ staff to be able to support
the ward operations.
Incredibly exciting at the time, challenging, daunting, because many of us didn't really know what to expect.
We had a number of new services and new facilities that were being
introduced into a hospital for the very first time,
and it was incredibly exciting to be able to see that progress from planning to commissioning.
Certainly the workforce culture was a little different back in the seventies, then it is today.
But, it was incredibly important. The social aspect of the hospital was incredibly important,
because it helped us bond at a time when we were under extreme pressure,
and the demands were great.
Things like happy hours on a Friday night,
and the FARTS, the Theatrical Revue Society.
That just brought everyone together, every year, it was tremendous, great fun.
In the early days, every year
the Flinders Medical Centre staff, and Flinders University staff were
heavily involved in what was called the Flinders Amateur Revue Theatrical Society,
which the acronym is FARTS,
and every year, from very senior staff, to cleaners, to car parking attendants,
everybody got involved, either participated in these events, or were members of the audience.
The volunteer service for the Flinders Medical Centre has played an integral role in
supporting staff, patients, and visitors at Flinders Medical Centre since it's inception in 1976.
More than a hundred volunteers were on hand
when the hospital opened it's doors to the public on the 6th of April 1976.
The volunteer service has raised more than 14 million dollars.
Including numerous grants for equipment and support for patient care and staff development
at Flinders Medical Centre.
And now boasts a team of more than 600 volunteers.
I've volunteered everywhere, lots of different places, but I've found this is the most friendliest and the best.
I've noticed lots of changes, and it's just grown so much.
I've been here forty years and I still don't know my way around.
I got to know a mother in here very well that was having triplets
and I went to see her after she'd had them,
and then I bumped into her not very long ago, and she had one of the triplets with her,
and they'd just turned 21, and it was just like old friends,
it was really lovely and I was so thrilled to see her.
Because she was in here for a long time, and I got to know here quite well.
So that's been one really outstanding thing from being a volunteer here.
Since its inception, the Flinders Medical Centre Foundation has been supporting
the team of three and a half thousand medical staff and 400 medical researches
who save lives everyday at Flinders Medical Centre through groundbreaking
research and cutting edge practices.
So far it has raised more than $60M for the hospital,
including the $30M Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer, which opened in 2012.
Naturally we aim to be the number one Health and Medical Research Foundation in Australia,
and we hope that the work that we fund will be globally competitive and world's best practice,
but most of all we hope that our work will lead to the prevention of disease.
Certainly the cure of it, and at the absolute minimum outcome just better patient care.
During its forty years, Flinders Medical Centre has created many firsts.
South Australia's first IVF baby was born in 1982.
A year later, the world's first IVF triplets; Chenara, Aaron and Jessica Guare
arrived at Flinders Medical Centre.
In 1986, the first Cochlear implant in South Australia was performed.
In 1992, South Australia's first liver transplant took place.
In 1996, Australia's first four-year graduate entry medical course began,
and in 1998, Australia's first Chest Pain Assessment Unit opened at Flinders Medical Centre.
By 2009-10, we had admitted our millionth patient,
and by 2014, the South Australian Liver Transplant Unit at Flinders
had completed its 300 liver transplant.
Today Flinders Medical Centre is unique in providing an extensive range of services for patients of all ages.
More than three and a half thousand skilled staff provide services to people across Australia.
From Darwin in the Northern Territory, to Mount Gambier in the South-East.
Our Arts in Health program is recognised as one of the best in the world.
Our four-decade journey has been a wonderful kaleidoscope of people, fashions and technology,
but while fashions and hairstyles may have changed,
the ethos that has been the cornerstone of Flinders Medical Centre;
integrating patient care, teaching and research,
has remained a constant.
Flinders has been on a journey for the last forty years,
and it's been steady journey.
There's a good, strong foundation built, and we are very well positioned to deliver high-quality healthcare
on a continuing basis into the future.
Happy 40th Anniversary Flinders Medical Centre.