$3 million for health-related programs
Dr David Golovsky, President of Wolper Jewish Hospital has announced the establishment of the Wolper Jewish Hospital Health Foundation, seeded with an initial $3,000,000 cash injection.
Dr David Golovsky and Harry Aizenberg
Dr Golovsky stated that “the establishment of the Foundation is testament to the Hospital’s ongoing commitment to continue supporting many rewarding health initiatives in the Jewish and general communities.”
One of the most rewarding of the many initiatives supported by Wolper has been the Tay Sachs disease prevention program. There have been no cases of Tay Sachs in the NSW Jewish community since the establishment of the programme in 1995.
Dr Golovsky said that the hospital had been “going for 53 years and rarely had a spare bed putting it in a very strong financial position.”
Over many years the Hospital has provided monetary support to many other programmes including Gift of Life Australia, Hatzolah, Camp Sababa, Jewish Alliance against Family Violence, Cancer Genetics Program,the National Council of Jewish Women’s “Mum for Mum” initiative and the Wellbeing program.
John Tucker, Harry Aizenberg and Dr David Golovsky Pic: Henry Benjamin
“It is our intention that the Foundation will be able to assist other programmes as well. Health related organisations in need can apply to the Foundation for a grant that will be reviewed on its merits” Dr Golovsky added.
Daniel Goulburn, Wolper’s Honorary Treasurer, expanded that “the Hospital has made a further commitment to support the Foundation with additional funds over the next 4 years as long as the Hospital continues to generate surpluses.” The funds are expected to be “topped-up” at quarterly intervals.
The Foundation will be managed by a separate Board of Trustees which includes the President and Treasurer of Wolper, two other directors of Wolper and other eminent members of the community yet to be named.
The function, held at the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Point Piper and attended by State Liberal MP Gabrielle Upton, farewelled Harry Aizenberg who recently retired as the hospital’s CEO, a position he had held for 32 years. This was his final function.
Aiznberg said: “It’s been a remarkable journey. Wolper was a very different place. The launch of this Foundation is a result of what the hospital has been striving for over the years…better health outcomes for the community.”
He focused on two board decisions. He complimented Sam Karpin and his Board who in the late 70s decided to restructure both the facility and the organisation. He said: “When I arrived on the scene in 1981, Wolper consisted of 35 beds most of which were long-term medical patients and one operating theatre which did mainly lumps and bumps. In 1982, the hospital closed down to allow for the total reconstruction to 51 beds.”
He said that clinical committees were introduced creating an awareness that “we were no longer a village hospital”. Aizenberg said that :the hospital prospered” and that by the 1990s it had grown to 71 beds, two theatres and specialist palliative care facilities.
He said that modern surgical developments reduced the time patients stayed in hospital resulting in the closure of many private hospitals in the area pinpointing the difficulty Wolper would have in sustaining the way it operated.
Aizenberg said that the Board decided to close the operating facilities. The business was restructured into acute medical, palliative and a rehab centre of excellence.
He numbered two reasons for the “outstanding success”. Firstly. the decisions made by the board on the strategic future of the year and the way the hospital adapted to them. Secondly, he lauded the staff who he said said “changed the direction of the hospital whilst maintaining its excellent level of care”.
Referring to new CEO John Tucker, Aizenberg said: “I leave Wolper in good hands.”
