Published on 3 November 2021

It was just 11 days into Sandy Schutte’s new role when one of the biggest challenges and most rewarding moments of her career emerged.

“It was quarter to five on a Thursday evening and I received a phone call,” the newly appointed General Manager of Melton and Bacchus Marsh recalls.

The news was grim. The tight-knit community of Bacchus Marsh was the epicentre of a COVID-19 outbreak.

“I called Western Health leadership team for support as I had no idea if we were going to be able to offer a service in the morning,” she said.

Sandy, who was previously the Director of Education and Learning at Western Health, has extensive operational experience and a reputation as a passionate and positive leader.

But this would be the first true test of her leadership at Melton and Bacchus Marsh and the chance to get to know her team in the most trying of circumstances.

To her amazement the Bacchus Marsh senior leaders stayed back late that night to work out how they would continue to operate. Every aspect of service delivery was carefully considered, including: roster reviews and food and linen delivery.

“By the time I left that night, I was sure that we were going to be able to stay open and continue to serve our community.

“It was so rewarding, as I got to see the team I was going to be working with in action and I was amazed by their incredible generosity of spirit, and their willingness to commit to supporting the organisation and their passion for their community.”

Bacchus Marsh and Melton staff were “highly exposed”, as the health service staff and school at the centre of the outbreak are so integrated.

“We’ve got one group of staff who were taking children to the Bacchus Marsh Grammar, which was Tier One site and has more than 3500 students, and another group of people collecting them.”

At one stage they had 44 staff furloughed, which equated to approximately six per cent of their workforce.

“For a regional health service this is a large percentage of staff to be furloughed at a given time and could have had an incredibly negative impact,” Sandy said.

The Bacchus Marsh and Melton senior leadership team sprang into action with morning and evening huddles to plan how to get through the next 24 hours.

Staff that were asked to furlough drove straight home and stayed there, while their friends and colleagues arranged food parcels to be delivered to their doorstep.

A decision was made to adopt the highest level of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) from the outset, to stop the virus from spreading throughout the hospital.

It turned out to be a pre-emptive masterstroke with no patients or staff infected on the site.

“People put their hand up to do overtime, or came in on their days off, so every shift was covered, and every role and responsibility was overseen and no one complained.

“And it was because of this extraordinary commitment and response that we were able to maintain a really good service, although we were missing such a significant group of our staff.”

The outbreak came shortly after the merger of the former Djerriwarrrh Health with Western Health.

Sandy said that thanks to the amalgamation, the health services in Melton and Bacchus Marsh could tap into Western Health’s nursing and midwifery workforce and the expertise of the Western Health Public Health Unit (WHPHU) which assisted with the COVID-19 clinic.

“It showed how two health services could come together to help a community in their time of need, and it had such a great ending, when, potentially we were facing a disaster.”