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Health Service Manager - Rod Fielding
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Without them our public health services would be in disarray and most likely the allocation of our public health resources not put to best use.
This is reflected in the services provided by health service managers like Rod Fielding who is employed by the City of Rockingham.
Fundamental to Rod''s role is assisting the Council to achieve its social, economic and environmental objectives, particularly as reflected in Public Health.
Key to his role is preparing, implementing and promoting environmental health plans and policies for the City of Rockingham whilst directing and controlling all Environmental Health service matters in the district.
His other key tasks within the City of Rockingham are:
Effectively leading and managing the Health Services Department to produce the most efficient use of available resources.
Contracting Management of the Health Services department''s external contracts or tenders and provider service agreements.
Assisting with the implementation of the Community Health and Well-Being Plan for the City of Rockingham.
''The Health and Well Being Plan initiative has been a whole of Council approach to health and well being of our community and has involved health agencies from the whole community. The Plan is still being developed and will ensure the decisions made by Council will consider the health and well being of the Rockingham community. This is the only whole of Council health and well being plan developed in WA at this time,'' says Rod.
Rod, who has worked in local government for the past 18 years, has seen his role go from a more regulatory role to one also concerned with health promotion. And no two days he says, ''are the same''.
One day Rod and his team could be dealing with a host of customer enquiries, and on another he could be contending with the ''hard'' issues out in the community. Rod says that at his level of management there is a need to be involved in consultation meetings, strategic planning, as well as general team and council meetings. In addition, Rod has the responsibility of dealing with a number of human resource oriented issues with the aim of providing his team with the best possible environment to work within.
Within his own Environmental Health Services team Rod is also responsible for:
Providing leadership and direction to all staff.
Providing adequate resources to the team to allow them to effectively and efficiently manage their business.
Providing professional advice and direction to the Coordinator of Health Services and/or the team on all matters related to the functions and operation of the Environmental Health Service.
According to Rod, who has completed a Bachelor of Health Science (Health Promotion) at Edith Cowan University and a Diploma of Environmental Health, local government is a largely varied workplace and his role just one of the many available to interested persons. Local government is therefore, he says, a great place to work.
''The position I have is very interesting and in 18 years I have never got up and never not wanted to go to work. I have always been proud of working for local government, especially Rockingham as we have great staff and at most times a proactive outlook. Most people I talk to about local government go away with a positive feeling about it.''
For Rod, one of the most rewarding projects he has been involved with was getting the government at the time to introduce scheme water into the Singleton and Golden Bay communities. After discovering that bore water supplies in those areas were contaminated and much lobbying later, the government decided the best solution was connecting homes in the area to clean drinking water.
Over the 18 years since Rod joined local government, Rod has seen the way his role is carried out change dramatically. The computerisation of work processes is probably the most significant change, in fact, Rod finds it hard to fathom that once upon a time his workplace was largely untouched by the technological revolution. With this change has come Rod''s move into management. Along with the increased number of technical issues he now deals with daily, is Rod''s much higher level of accountability.
After 13 years spent working in various State Governments in New South Wales and New Zealand as an environmental health officer, Rod was unsure of what to expect of local government but he has no complaints. One of the especially rewarding aspects about local government for Rod is watching young people enter it.
''Local government is a very challenging and rewarding place to work. Unfortunately there are a number of misconceptions about it as a workplace but many of them are urban myths.''
The last word on his workplace from a man proud of what he does,
''People don''t lean on shovels. Consider it as it is an excellent career choice.''
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Acknowledgements |
Content courtesy of Louise Allan-Johnson. |
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