The speaker last week was Mr. Damien Amour, CEO of Epworth Hospital, Geelong. Damien has been with Epworth Freemasons Hospital system for over 11 years and became CEO 4 years ago however, it was not opened to the public until approximately 2 years ago. Damien spoke about the health industry in general, health services and some background to the Epworth.

The health care industry comprises of Universal which is a mix of private and public, which under Medicare is funded by income tax subsidy and Private where 46% of the population has the benefits of health insurance. The health industry cost the Federal and State Governments $150 billion in 2015 or 9.5% GDP. This places Australia mid-range compared with other countries. The USA spends 14% of GDP on health services but is considered not really any better than Australia. It was noted that the expenditure on health care is increasing with age and life expectancy – in 1890, the average was 45 to 50 whereas in 2014, it was 80 for males and 85 for females, much of which is due to the improved health care system and medications. The population is now dying from different reasons compared with the past century – in 1900, there were a wide range of causes including tuberculosis and pneumonia, now it is mainly cancer and heart disease. For the health care system, the Federal Government pays 42%, State 27% and patients, 20% and private insurance 11%.

There are 1330 hospitals in the country, 701 public, 630 private and each year, handling 10.6 million hospitalisations. There are 3 groups – Public/Private for profit,  Day visit private not for profit and Hospital stay private. It is a feature that health insurance held by people has been steady for a number of years after falling from 77.8% in 1970 to 46.9% in 1990 however there has been a steady decline over the past 12 months largely due to costs.

The Epworth hospital system started in 1920 and is now the largest not for profit organisation with 9 campuses in Victoria. The Geelong hospital was mooted due to the population growth including the ageing, and leakage to the Melbourne campus of over 2000 patients each year. It was set up to fulfil the purpose of Epworth – to improve the health and wellbeing of the local population. It is also supported by the local university. The facilities of Epworth Geelong include a bed capacity of 262 although only 172 are currently in use, all of which are private rooms. The hospital has now many departments such as surgical including same day surgery, rehabilitation, maternity (started last year), several operating theatres, intensive care, cardiac cathertisation (?), day oncology and renal dialysis. The Epworth has an agreement for 10 % of public patients are through Barwon Health. Almost 4 years ago, Damien was the sole employee, there are now 865 employed staff supported by many volunteers in areas such as personal services and general assistance. The hospital supports a robust system to gauge the happiness and wellbeing of both staff and patients – the Geelong Epworth is very high in all measures compared with other benchmark campuses with fantastic customer feedback (the best out of 42 hospitals). All complaints are very carefully investigated and signed off by Damien.

Overall, Damien gave a very interesting presentation as measured by the interest and questions from the members present. In addition, there is the possibility of a Vocation visit to the hospital.

1. Recommend Rotary Global Rewards to all club members. They can visit www.rotary.org/globalrewards from a computer or download the Rotary Club Locator App to use the program on mobile devices.
2. Post a "Rewards" link to www.rotary.org/globalrewards on your club and district websites. This gives members easier access to Rotary Global Rewards.
3. Encourage club members to post offers on Rotary Global Rewards. 
4. Suggest that club members help the program grow in their communities by asking local merchants to post offers.