"End of Life Care - exemplary support"

My mother was recently a patient at Ipswich General Hospital. She was admitted after a fall, was treated in the Orthopaedic Ward, was transferred to Ward 7A Acute Care, and finally transferred to Palliative Care, where she died.

I have been treated, and family members have been treated, in some of the top named hospitals across Australia. I have been fortunate as a senior member of universities to be responsible for establishing and overseeing medical and health training across all health and allied health professions.

I know how extraordinarily difficult it is to create inter-professional health education and practice that works effectively. It is doubly so in large, relatively under-staffed public hospitals with stretched resources.

I have never seen a better demonstration of joined-up health care, accompanied by compassion, efficiency and a dedicated commitment to the care of the whole patient, as I did at Ipswich General Hospital. The culture was exemplified by every member of staff. Our lead nurses on each floor were exceptional. The students are being prepared for a lifetime and it is wonderful training.

Amanda, our designated transition lead, overcame multiple obstacles in her efforts to ensure that my elderly father could be with my mother when she died and returned safely home to a regional town afterwards.

You could not achieve a culture like that coincidentally for three weeks at once. Congratulations to the leadership and every member of staff, particularly those leading and on the teams who interact so closely with patients and their families. You are the ones who give Australia its reputation for outstanding patient care. I could not have asked for better care for my mother in her last three weeks of life.

Thank you.