INTHEBLACK June-July 2024 - Flipbook - Page 30
MEMBER PROFILE
“I walk a very fine line
to balance financial
sustainability and
clinical need in my
role, because there
is a person at the end
of every decision.”
RACHELLE ANSTEY CPA,
MONASH HEALTH
shut that and say, “Sorry guys, I can’t find
any more money”. We have to work to
find extra funds to support the community
members who need care.
Each financial year, we have to make
decisions about how to allocate the funding
envelope into the major areas within
operations while balancing the needs
of the other support functions, such as
pathology, imaging, IT and finance.
We use trends of the past five years to
guide what we think will happen. If we
exclude the pandemic era, we think we
have a pretty good idea of the trends,
although a lot has changed since the
pandemic, and we have had to adapt.
There are other factors. For instance,
royal commissions into aged care and
mental health have led to changes.
They usually mean more funding,
which means we need to have the right
workforce and model to ensure we are
up-to-date and compliant.
30 INTHEBLACK June/July 2024
GAME CHANGERS
Shifting gears
During school, I had always intended to
become a pharmacist, but when I studied
accounting in Year 12, I found I enjoyed it
and was good at it. I loved the numbers and
the thinking. By the end of Year 12, I knew
I would become an accountant.
My work game changer came in 2015, when
I changed industries. I had been working for
Melbourne Water for close to four years. At the
time, the healthcare industry was not recruiting
external applicants, but I succeeded in getting a
role at Alfred Health because of my teamwork
skills. I fell in love with the healthcare sector,
and it has opened doors for me.
I am grateful that I have been able to
bring the experience I had in other sectors
to health. It is a funny coincidence that
I am now in something closely related to
pharmacy – it may be why I have enjoyed
the healthcare sector for so long.
