On Friday 1 May we acknowledge the incredible contribution of our administrative professionals across NSW Health Pathology. From reception to rostering and support services – their work matters and we appreciate all that they do!

Our admin­is­tra­tion super­stars are the peo­ple who keep our col­lec­tion cen­tres, lab­o­ra­to­ries, call cen­tres and cor­po­rate and clin­i­cal oper­a­tions run­ning smooth­ly every day, often work­ing behind the scenes!

NSW Health Pathol­o­gy Chief Exec­u­tive Vanes­sa Janis­sen thanked all admin­is­tra­tive staff across the state for their hard work.

“Our admin pro­fes­sion­als make a real dif­fer­ence every day,” Vanes­sa said.

“The work they do undoubt­ed­ly plays a large role in help­ing NSW Health Pathol­o­gy deliv­er high qual­i­ty patient care and I hope they know their hard work nev­er goes unnoticed.”

We spoke to some of our admin super­stars – Lisa, Les­ley, Clare, Shireen, Joan, Meli­ta, Vir­ginia and Katie – about the impact their work has on our patients and the valu­able con­tri­bu­tion they make to patient care.

A spe­cial con­grat­u­la­tions to Les­ley, Clare and Lisa on their incred­i­ble years of ser­vice and wish them all the best as they pre­pare to retire in the com­ing weeks!

Les­ley has an amaz­ing 48 years of ser­vice, Clare has 30 years of ser­vice and Lisa has 27.5 years of ser­vice– an out­stand­ing achieve­ment for which we are huge­ly grateful!

Meet Lesley Maclaren, Administration Officer, Gosford Anatomical Pathology (recently retired)

How long have you worked for NSW Health Pathol­o­gy?
48 years! I have worked for NSW Health Pathol­o­gy since 1 Sep­tem­ber 1978, I was only out of school for 11 months. I start­ed as a trainee blood col­lec­tor, lab aide and cler­i­cal assis­tant, doing mul­ti­ple jobs which kept my work­day very inter­est­ing! In 1992 I moved to Gos­ford and worked in blood collection/specimen recep­tion until around 1994 when I moved to Anatom­i­cal Pathol­o­gy (AP) as a typ­ist at Roy­al Prince Alfred Hos­pi­tal for nine months. I was also sec­ond­ed to Con­cord when two of their three sec­re­taries retired. I lat­er moved there per­ma­nent­ly, hav­ing bought a home in Gos­ford.  Then I got a call out of the blue in 2010, telling me there was a job for me at Gos­ford AP, where I worked until I retired recently.

What are some of your career high­lights?
All of my work­ing life has been reward­ing and very inter­est­ing so it’s hard to select a sin­gle high­light over my career in pathol­o­gy. My begin­ning in pathol­o­gy is strange, I went for an inter­view for a trainee­ship, and was suc­cess­ful with two oth­ers, I was lucky to be giv­en pathol­o­gy. My boss at the time Mr Mayes, asked me if I knew what pathol­o­gy was, I said no, and he said to me “walk this way” and a very inter­est­ing walk it has been ever since!

What are your plans for your retire­ment?
My retire­ment plans are trav­el­ling around Aus­tralia, it’s such an amaz­ing coun­try, basi­cal­ly camp­ing and vis­it­ing retired friends who have moved all up and down the east coast, also vis­it­ing friends in the Aus­tralian outback.

Meet Clare West, Senior Human Resources Consultant, based at our Westmead Laboratory

How long have you worked at NSW Health Pathol­o­gy?  I began my career in Novem­ber 1996 in the Anatom­i­cal Pathol­o­gy Depart­ment at West­mead Hos­pi­tal, work­ing as a Histopathol­o­gy Typ­ist. In Decem­ber 1999, I trans­ferred to Nepean Hos­pi­tal, where I ini­tial­ly worked as Sec­re­tary to pathol­o­gists Prof Roger Wil­son, and lat­er to Prof James Bran­ley. I hold many fond mem­o­ries of this time and the fan­tas­tic peo­ple I worked with.  In June 2020, I made a sig­nif­i­cant and some­what daunt­ing career change, join­ing the Metro North West Human Resources (HR) team. While step­ping into HR was a big and scary shift, it proved to be exact­ly the change I need­ed and has been an incred­i­bly reward­ing expe­ri­ence pro­vid­ing me an oppor­tu­ni­ty to work with more fan­tas­tic peo­ple. My enjoy­ment of work­ing with­in pathol­o­gy ser­vices goes right back to my ear­ly career with Queens­land Pathol­o­gy in Townsville. I have always loved work­ing with pathol­o­gy staff and deeply val­ue the vital con­tri­bu­tion we make to health­care and the community.

What are some of your career high­lights? One of the most reward­ing aspects of my career in pathol­o­gy has been gain­ing a true under­stand­ing of the immense con­tri­bu­tion our ser­vice makes to patient care and the broad­er com­mu­ni­ty. Pathol­o­gy staff are often under­val­ued and work large­ly behind the scenes, yet their role is absolute­ly crit­i­cal to the diag­no­sis and treat­ment of patients. Pathol­o­gy staff are often under­val­ued and work large­ly behind the scenes, yet their role is absolute­ly crit­i­cal to the diag­no­sis and treat­ment of patients.

What inspired you to pur­sue a career in pathol­o­gy? While work­ing as a casu­al med­ical typ­ist at Townsville Hos­pi­tal, I was for­tu­nate to have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to back­fill a pathol­o­gy sec­re­tary role. From that moment, I fell in love with the “pathol­o­gy vibe” and knew this was where I want­ed to build my career.

What are you look­ing for­ward to in retire­ment? As I look ahead to retire­ment, I am most excit­ed about spend­ing more time with my elder­ly par­ents and parents‑in‑law, and wel­com­ing my first grand­child, who is on the way. I’m also look­ing for­ward to spend­ing more time on myself and doing more quilt­ing, per­haps get­ting a dog, enjoy­ing sleep‑ins, and tak­ing the free­dom to do what­ev­er I feel like each day!

Meet Lisa McElligott, Executive Assistant to Nepean Local Pathology Director, Prof James Branley

How long have you worked for NSW Health Pathol­o­gy?
I start­ed on 2 Novem­ber 1998 – which means I’ve been here for 27.5 years! I’ve been the Exec­u­tive Assis­tant to A/Prof James Bran­ley for the past five years, man­ag­ing a busy diary, solv­ing prob­lems as they arise and keep­ing things run­ning smooth­ly behind the scenes. A big part of my role is build­ing strong work­ing rela­tion­ships with the pathol­o­gists, Senior Med­ical Offi­cers and lab man­agers, which I real­ly val­ue. Pri­or to this, I spent 22 years as an AP typ­ist, where I tran­scribed dic­tat­ed reports and pro­vid­ing essen­tial sup­port to the team, includ­ing trou­bleshoot­ing day-to-day issues.

What are some of your career high­lights?
In my pre­vi­ous role as an AP typ­ist, I found it very reward­ing know­ing that my work con­tributed to accu­rate and time­ly patient results. I’ve always tak­en pride in being effi­cient and pro­duc­ing high-qual­i­ty work. In my cur­rent role as an Exec­u­tive Assis­tant, my focus is on sup­port­ing A/Prof Bran­ley in his day-to-day respon­si­bil­i­ties, along with the broad­er needs of the pathol­o­gists. While the focus has shift­ed, I bring the same effi­cien­cy, knowl­edge and atten­tion to detail to every­thing I do. I’ve always approached my work with a strong sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty and of doing what’s required to the best of my ability.

What inspired you to pur­sue a career in pathol­o­gy?
I didn’t orig­i­nal­ly choose pathol­o­gy as a career path- it was more that an admin­is­tra­tive posi­tion became avail­able at a pri­vate pathol­o­gy provider in Emu Plains, close to home, and it suit­ed my cir­cum­stances at the time. How­ev­er, once I was work­ing there, I began to under­stand the impor­tance of pathol­o­gy in health­care and devel­oped an inter­est in the field. After about four years, I was look­ing for a more secure role and saw an AP typ­ist posi­tion adver­tised at Nepean Pathol­o­gy in the local paper. I applied, was suc­cess­ful, and that’s how my longer-term career in pathol­o­gy real­ly began.

What are you look­ing for­ward to in retire­ment?
Retire­ment feels like the begin­ning of a new and spe­cial chap­ter. After 41 years, it will be a lit­tle bit­ter­sweet to leave my home, as it holds so many mem­o­ries. I’m mov­ing to Lake Cathie, where I’ll be close to both the lake and the ocean, and I’m real­ly look­ing for­ward to the peace and sim­plic­i­ty of that lifestyle. I’m espe­cial­ly excit­ed to spend more time with my chil­dren, my grand­chil­dren, and extend­ed fam­i­ly. I’m hop­ing to enjoy the lit­tle things – qui­et beach walks, fresh air, and a slow­er pace. I’m look­ing for­ward to the change and what’s ahead.

Meet Joan Blight, Administration Manager, Genetics, Prince of Wales Randwick

How long have you been work­ing for NSW Health?
I com­menced my career with NSW Health in 1995 at Prince of Wales Hos­pi­tal in Med­ical Imag­ing as a Med­ical Typ­ist. I’ve been the Admin­is­tra­tion Man­ag­er for Genet­ics at Rand­wick since Feb­ru­ary 2023, play­ing a key role in keep­ing the ser­vice run­ning smooth­ly behind the scenes. When I first joined, I was seek­ing a part-time role that would allow me to bal­ance work with rais­ing my young fam­i­ly, and this was per­fect. As an admin­is­tra­tive all-rounder I sup­port­ed med­ical report tran­scrip­tion, patient book­ings, pre­pared x‑ray clin­ic lists and front office operations.

In 2002, I worked with the Direc­tor of Med­ical Imag­ing, fur­ther devel­op­ing my admin­is­tra­tive and office man­age­ment skills. In 2008, I bal­anced my hos­pi­tal role with study­ing Small Busi­ness Man­age­ment while also sup­port­ing the estab­lish­ment and oper­a­tion of a fam­i­ly tim­ber and build­ing sup­plies busi­ness, which I lat­er man­aged full-time from 2012.

After return­ing to NSW Health in 2019 in Child and Fam­i­ly Health, I tran­si­tioned into a full-time role in the Eye Clin­ic and com­plet­ed an eight-month sec­ond­ment in Social Work. I com­menced my cur­rent role in Genet­ics in Feb­ru­ary 2023.

What are some of your career high­lights?
Work­ing close­ly with the Lab Man­ag­er and the broad­er Genet­ics team, I thrive in a fast‑paced envi­ron­ment where no two days are the same. From organ­is­ing and coor­di­nat­ing day‑to‑day oper­a­tions to sup­port­ing staff and clin­i­cians, it’s my job to make sure every­thing stays on track. What I love most is the peo­ple. The Genet­ics team is incred­i­bly sup­port­ive and friend­ly, and that makes it a great place to work. I enjoy organ­is­ing, coor­di­nat­ing, and help­ing things run smoothly—while always learn­ing some­thing new along the way

How does your work help us deliv­er excep­tion­al care to the com­mu­ni­ty?
To me, care is being reli­able, pay­ing atten­tion to detail, and sup­port­ing oth­ers. When every­thing runs smooth­ly, it helps the team do their best work and cre­ates a pos­i­tive, respect­ful envi­ron­ment. It’s also about the details, the kind that make a big dif­fer­ence to how a ser­vice runs.

Meet Virginia Keeley, Executive Assistant, Director of Finance & Corporate Services

How long have you worked at NSW Health Pathol­o­gy?
Six years.

How does your work help us deliv­ery excep­tion­al care to the com­mu­ni­ty?
I’ve loved being in a sup­port role to the Finance & Cor­po­rate Ser­vices Port­fo­lio over the past 6 years. This includes Cor­po­rate Finance, Rev­enue and our Com­mer­cial Teams. I receive requests for help on a wide vari­ety of top­ics. No two days are the same, which makes it an end­less­ly inter­est­ing job.

The team is focussed on ensur­ing that we main­tain a finan­cial­ly effi­cient approach to deliv­er­ing our ser­vices, and when­ev­er I am in a meet­ing (usu­al­ly doing the min­utes and actions), I know that our patients and their best inter­ests are gen­uine­ly present in the room, from the deci­sions being made.

I help deliv­er excep­tion­al care to the com­mu­ni­ty by tak­ing care of all the behind-the-scenes admin­is­tra­tive tasks and sec­re­tari­at sup­port that absolute­ly needs to be done but would take time away from the staff in my team mak­ing impor­tant deci­sions on behalf of our com­mu­ni­ty of patients (and the employ­ees of NSW Health Pathology).

Meet Melita Rowland, Executive Assistant, Newcastle Corporate Office

How long have you worked at NSW Health Pathol­o­gy?
I’ve been with NSW Health Pathol­o­gy for 22.5 years, but who’s counting?!

How does your work help us deliv­er excep­tion­al care to the com­mu­ni­ty?
My role is about sup­port­ing our lead­ers and teams so they can focus on what real­ly mat­ters. I love work­ing with peo­ple at all lev­els of the organ­i­sa­tion from ‘lab land’ to the cor­po­rate office.

If I can make life a lit­tle eas­i­er behind the scenes, I know I’m help­ing sup­port the essen­tial care we pro­vide to patients and the com­mu­ni­ty. I enjoy the vari­ety that comes with work­ing for Australia’s largest pub­lic pathol­o­gy ser­vice – it keeps my job interesting!

Meet Katie Adams, Executive Assistant, Northern Sydney and Central Coast Operations

How long have you worked at NSW Health Pathol­o­gy?
I’ve worked at NSW Health for 10 years in Exec­u­tive Assis­tant and admin­is­tra­tion roles.

What do you love about your work?
I love to organ­ise train­ing and study appli­ca­tions for the Staff Spe­cial­ists, allow­ing them to access study and train­ing opportunities.

When you hear the word ‘care’ in our work, what comes to mind for you?
Care is about recog­nis­ing that even behind the scenes work has a direct impact on patients, and approach­ing every task with pro­fes­sion­al­ism, and con­sid­er­a­tion for the some­times vul­ner­a­ble peo­ple who rely on us. I real­ly enjoy sup­port­ing doc­tors by man­ag­ing admin­is­tra­tive tasks, allow­ing them to focus on deliv­er­ing the best pos­si­ble patient care.

Meet Shireen Hitchen, Administration Officer at Orange Laboratory

How long have you worked at NSW Health Pathol­o­gy?
I’ve worked with NSW Health Pathol­o­gy for 29 years!

What do you love about your work?
I have always enjoyed work­ing in NSW Health Pathol­o­gy and take immense pride in being part of the NSW Health Pathol­o­gy net­work. I find the patient care pathol­o­gy strives to achieve dai­ly is very rewarding.

How does your work help us deliv­er excep­tion­al care to the com­mu­ni­ty?
My role involves a range of tasks from data entry to answer­ing enquiries from patients and clin­i­cians, results deliv­ery, fil­ing, rev­enue and audit­ing. As the test­ing is becom­ing more com­plex, keep­ing up to date can be very chal­leng­ing but also sat­is­fy­ing. I feel like I am a very small part of a big­ger pic­ture mak­ing a difference.

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