New chairman of the Sydney Eye Hospital Foundation, Dr Andrew Chang, believes the Foundation is in a good position to support the hospital as it prepares itself to deal with the many challenges and growing demands on health services in the next decade.
A recently prepared future projection by the hospital indicates that by 2031 there will be a 27 per cent growth in inpatient admissions and 25 per cent in outpatients. A 44 per cent increase is expected in the 80 plus age group.
He said, “We have increasing demands as we live longer. We develop eye issues like macular degeneration, glaucoma, cataracts and diabetes. Patients are consumers and want to keep seeing, to keep living with a quality of life and that is where the challenges are. Sight is a precious element to maintain quality of life.”
The Foundation has been supporting the hospital for 41 years and provides valuable and vital resources to enhance care within the hospital.
“There is much to do. Staff wellbeing is a priority as is meeting community expectations, for example, in closing the gap in indigenous health and virtual care capabilities like telehealth, and to help, the Foundation needs to look outward,” Dr Chang said.
“This reaching out is not just asking for donations to support work; it is actually giving us an opportunity to fundraise from a much broader group and that is what our fundraising team is really pushing now.
“We have not looked far beyond our own backyard yet. When we do that, we’ll be having partnerships with industry, for instance, and more philanthropic relationships.
“We have been small, inward-looking and effective within our own borders but we are going to extend beyond them now.”
Dr Andrew Chang, Head of Ophthalmology, with Dr Rhuen Chow, Vitreo Retinal Fellow 2022
An ophthalmologist and retinal specialist, Dr Chang (57) has been a board member for six years and this year is observing 25 years of working with the hospital.
He was in high school when he decided he wanted to be a doctor. “My family was in business and said they thought we really think you should try to make a difference to those in need around you. I recall winning a cash music prize and buying an anatomy book which I still have.
“I was most fortunate to go to Sydney Uni and it was the first time a member of my family chose a career in medicine.
“I was in 3rd year medicine, doing the ‘eye term’ and I observed a cataract microsurgery. I walked out of the operating theatre absolutely fascinated, and announced to my tutor that I was going to be an ophthalmologist.”
He is a strong proponent of the Foundation’s Fellowship Programme with the number of Fellows it will support expanding from eight to nine in 2023, thanks to a commitment from the Lions NSW-ACT Save Sight Foundation.
His enthusiasm isn’t surprising as he has been a Fellow at three hospitals – the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne, the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital in New York and the University of California.
He trained at Sydney Eye Hospital (“which I am fiercely proud of”), and after completion he went to Melbourne for advanced training in retina.
“I was encouraged by my mentor to go overseas and learn new techniques and bring them back to Australia. That has always been the philosophy of how we’ve managed new-generation eye surgeons at the Eye Hospital.
“There is succession planning. You identify those you think will be good for the institution, for the community and where there is a need.
“A Fellow essentially means advanced training beyond your normal experience to advance your qualifications.
“We train half of the new generation of future eye doctors in the country. Furthermore, we have a role to educate beyond our state and Australia and that is why we have the Fellowship Programme. It essentially connects us with the world benefiting patients globally.”
Dr Chang is taking over from former board chairman Dr Justin Playfair who has retired after 14 years as board chair.
He said, “Dr Playfair has been my mentor. He has imparted to all those who trained under him a caring ethos to patients and colleagues of exemplary clinical service. All this with great humility as well. What I am doing now reflects on what he has done for many decades.”
Dr Chang also referred to board member, Phil Bower, who died recently following a motor vehicle accident.
“I didn’t know him until I joined the board. Since then, I have discovered Phil to be completely understated but so skilled, wise and so generous. He was incredibly supportive of the Foundation, the Hospital, and in supporting research and the Eye and Tissue Bank.
“We are going to really miss him. He helped us fund a microscope by arranging a $100,000 grant and, again, a fellowship funding grant and was such an advocate for patients.
“At all the right times he would step in and offer support.”
Vale Phillip Bower
26.12.1936 – 8.8.2022
Foundation Board member 2013-2022
The Foundation is deeply saddened by the sudden passing of sitting Board member Phil Bower following a motor vehicle accident. We extend our heartfelt condolences to Phil’s wife Jennifer, their family, and the Lions NSW-ACT Save Sight Foundation members.
Phil was also a valuable member of the Investment Finance Committee from 2019.
His contribution to the wider community is immense, holding long standing positions on the boards of the Motor Neurone Disease Association, Lion’s NSW-ACT Save Sight and Public Healthcare Foundation and Sydney Eye Hospital Foundation.
Phil was a generous man with incredible knowledge who lived an extraordinary life – RAAF pilot, wildlife trainer, police detective, veterinarian, husband, father and friend.
