Diane Gellatly

Clinical Nurse Consultant – Geriatric Flying Squad

War Memorial Hospital

“I’m the clinical nurse consultant and manager for the Flying Squad – a sub-acute rapid response geriatric team located in the War Memorial Hospital.  We bridge the gap between the emergency department and outpatient services.  I help coordinate, support and advise on the best care for our patients.

It’s the complexity of our patients that inspires me to come to work every day.  You never know what referrals you’re going to get.

I think I’m a strong patient advocate. We tolerate a lot of situations that other health professionals would say are too hard. There’s one lady who lived in significant hoarding and she was agoraphobic.  She was referred by her informal carer, who said she was really unwell. She was septic. We were able to organise hospital-in-the-home to come and give her intravenous antibiotics.  Through a few interactions and knowing her for quite some time, we were able to put in carers that helped her clean up the hoarding and she’s still at home to this day.  And she was in a situation where she was ready to be dragged out, kicking and screaming, to go for treatment. For us, that was a real success story.

It’s nice when you can go home knowing that you have helped someone and that you’ve made a difference.”