It is a great privilege to write to you for the first time as Chief Executive Officer of St Andrew’s Toowoomba Hospital.
I join St Andrew’s in a remarkable year. As we celebrate our 60th anniversary, I have been struck by how deeply this hospital is woven into the life of Toowoomba and the Darling Downs. For six decades, St Andrew’s has cared for local families, supported local clinicians and worked alongside local health providers. That trust has been earned over many years, and it is something I am committed to protecting.
I would like to sincerely thank Arthur Yannakou for his outstanding leadership of St Andrew’s. Arthur will remain with us as Executive Advisor over the coming months, ensuring continuity for our patients, our specialists and our partners.
St Andrew’s enters its next chapter from a position of strength. Our core services in Mental Health, Cardiac Services, Cancer Care and Orthopaedic Surgery, together with the many surgical, medical, diagnostic and support services that work alongside them, give us a strong platform for growth.
As the needs of our region evolve, so too must we. I see real opportunity ahead for St Andrew’s to expand the services we offer, invest in new technology and facilities, and continue to attract the specialists and clinical teams who will shape the future of healthcare on the Darling Downs.
Our aim is to ensure that the people in our community can access the care they need, close to home, from a hospital they know and trust. None of this is possible without the strong relationships we share with the broader medical community.
Our visiting medical officers and specialists, general practitioners, referring clinicians and health partners across the region all play a vital role in the care our patients receive, and your confidence in St Andrew’s matters greatly to us.
Over the coming months, I look forward to meeting with doctors and health providers across the region to hear what is working well, where we can strengthen collaboration, and how St Andrew’s can continue to be a hospital where clinicians choose to practise and refer with confidence.
In the new year, we will begin developing our next strategic plan to guide this growth. We will be seeking input from our community, our clinicians and our partners, and I welcome your involvement.
Sixty years on, our purpose is unchanged: to be the hospital with heart for the community that built us.
What will not change is who we are. St Andrew’s was built by the community, for the community, and our values of compassion and service remain at the heart of everything we do.My family and I are proud to now call Toowoomba home, and I am honoured to lead a hospital with such a proud history and such a bright future.
Thank you to everyone who has made St Andrew’s what it is today. I look forward to working with you.
Paul Boje
Chief Executive Officer