Ralph Willis, AO, has spent his working life advocating for the west.
He was the federal member for Gellibrand for 26 years, is a previous chairman of LeadWest, and has been on countless boards and committees.
For 10 years, he has also been chairman of Western Health, which oversees the Sunshine, Western and Williamstown hospitals, the Sunbury Day Hospital and a range of community-based services.
He steps down from that role this month and a successor is expected to be named within days.
His long tenure is ironic considering he was ‘forced’ into the job by then-premier Steve Bracks.
“I was busy with other roles and didn’t have a health background, so I was a bit reluctant at first. But I decided it was something I’d like to do because it was another chance to do something for the west.”
Mr Willis cited the stage one redevelopment at Sunshine Hospital and building the Sunbury Day Hospital as major achievements of the past decade. “In a growth area like this, it’s very difficult to meet all the demands, but I think we’ve faced those demand pressures reasonably well and been able to improve the quality and safety of our services at the same time,” he said.
“Just as an indication of how good our performance has been lately . . . we were the sixth- highest [of 21 major health services in Victoria] in ranking. Given the difficulties we face in infrastructure, growth and demand for our services, that’s really terrific.”
Mr Willis said the biggest tasks for the next chair was to pursue a $550 million redevelopment of Sunshine and Western hospitals, including a new women and children’s centre at Sunshine and an emergency department for Footscray.
“[Western Hospital] is inadequate . . . it needs to be replaced with more modern facilities and we desperately need a new emergency department on this site,” he said. “But it’s also good we’re getting a new intensive-care unit at Sunshine this year or next year and it will take some of the pressure off the emergency department at Footscray. You can’t say there’s been an ignoring of the west, but given the pressures of the area and the growth, the need for much more is clearly there.”
