WIMMERA Health Care Group’s Don McRae will this month say goodbye to the city he has called home for the past 25 years – but he’ll be back.
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Tuesday marked Mr McRae’s final day as the group’s clinical services director, before he starts a new job in Gippsland later this month.
Mr McRae has witnessed many milestones during his time in Horsham, including the construction a new hospital and sub-acute unit, plus the establishment of what is now one of the state’s most highly-regarded rural graduate training programs.
But there is one more milestone he is eager to see ticked off: the completion of the Wimmera Cancer Centre.
The $5.3-million centre at Wimmera Base Hospital is due to be finished in November.
“I've thrown a few hints around that I want an invite to come back for the opening,” Mr McRae said.
“We started lobbying for the cancer centre in 2008.
“The community support for the project has been outstanding, and exemplifies what the Wimmera community is all about.”
Mr McRae – who trained in Wangaratta before moving to Melbourne in 1988 to work in midwifery – came to the Wimmera from Melbourne’s The Alfred hospital.
“I was working in the trauma intensive care unit in 1992, and one of my colleagues showed me an ad for an emergency department nurse unit manager job in Horsham,” he said.
“I was wanting to move back to the country with my young family. I put in an application, and I got the job.
“We had never been to Horsham before. We immediately found that it was a family community, and we quickly made a lot of friends.”
Mr McRae – who is also a winemaker – worked in the emergency department role for eight years, before moving into the nursing operations manager role.
Five years later, he became the clinical services director.
“It has been a really great learning opportunity for me. I’ve had the chance to work with fantastic people over the years,” he said.
“I've learnt so much out here from the role and the people I’ve worked with.
“The fit for my new job was really good because of the experience I've had here.
“It has prepared me really well to take on the new role.
“I’m thankful to all the staff at Wimmera Health Care Group. They have been fantastic to work with.
“They are welcoming and really hard-working people, and have been very supportive of my leadership.”
Mr McRae will start as Latrobe Regional Hospital’s chief operating officer and chief nurse and midwife on August 27.
