ACHS Medal 'surprise' for Bethesda CEO

Long-serving Western Australian healthcare leader Dr Neale Fong has been awarded the prestigious ACHS Medal for 2023.

After accepting the award at the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards' annual ceremony in Sydney, Dr Fong said he was "greatly honoured".

"It was a surprise and an honour. They're a great organisation that have been doing some great work for the past 50 years," he said.

"I've been in healthcare for a long time, and all the credit really goes to all the people I've worked with and my family of course, who have been on this journey with me."

Nominated for his outstanding achievements in the promotion of quality in healthcare, Dr Fong has an extensive history of accomplishments.

As a registered medical practitioner with more than 35 years' experience in a wide range of leadership roles in the private and public health systems, Dr Fong has held and continues to hold senior positions in all healthcare sectors covering government services, private hospitals, academia, health research, public health, aged care and not for profit organisations.

He is currently the CEO of Bethesda Health Care, a Perth-based private acute surgical and specialist palliative care organisation, and he also spent time as an Australian Private Hospitals Association Board member.

"I've crossed over from the public system to the private, to not-for-profit, my whole career, and I think it's something we don't do enough of," Dr Fong said.

"I've worked in academia, and aged care, and there's great opportunities there to move around and really develop an understanding of the different areas of healthcare and what goes into community health."

Early on in his career, Dr Fong was asked to establish andmanage the first HIV/AIDS Assessment in Perth. This was a new disease at the time and attracted a lot of public angst and attention.

He was involved in establishing new policies, standards, and protocols for assessing, diagnosing and referring HIV-positive patients.

Dr Fong was also the founding partner and Chief Medical Director of Bali International Medical Centre, the first Western-standard tourist and expatriate medical service on the Indonesian island. This clinic cared for the first 70 casualties of the Bali Bombing in 2002. 

In 1998 he was appointed CEO of Australia's largest private hospital at the time, St John of God Hospital Subiaco, where he appointed the first consumer advocate to the Hospital Management Committee. 

Dr Fong said his time at St John of God was "a real highlight" of his career.

Dr Fong was also the Director General of WA Health, during which time he launched the state's inaugural safety and quality framework and was heavily involved in the establishment of theAustralian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Carein 2006.

After that role, Dr Fong led the project to establish Australia's newest medical school through Curtin University.

"Being able to lead the project was so rewarding," he said.

The medical school enrolled its first students in 2017 and focused on training doctors for rural areas.

Dr Fong is now focused on meeting the healthcare needs of people in those remote regions.

"I'd like to see more resources there in the bush which enable people to get treatment closer to home," he said.

"And ensuring we have retrieval and transport services is vital, particularly in this state, so that's where my main focus is now."

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