Chief radiographer brings years of experience to the LGH

A global expert in the field of medical imaging, Mr Samuel took over as the chief radiographer and operations manager at the Launceston general hospital about four months ago.

After studying radiography at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in his home city of New Deli, Mr Samuel began working at the AIIMS, one of the world's busiest hospitals.

He said the experience of working at a 2000-bed hospital gave him foundational knowledge he has carried throughout his career.

"In those days, every staff member would see 200 patients a day, it's that busy. Training there, it keeps for the rest of your life," he said.

"You see everything on a daily basis, you don't miss anything, and when you move from there growing into your career as you move up the ladder, you can put those skills to practice.

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After leaving India, Mr Samuel worked in the United Kingdom for a time before travelling east for a brief stint in Kuwait and ending up in Australia.

Most recently, Mr Samuel was the director of medical imaging at Bundaberg Hospital in Queensland, but chose to move to Launceston saying it's where his skills would be of most use.

"My passion is public health," he said.

"That's where I can use my skills the most, because my passion is access to the most needy cohort of our community, people who need acute care right away.

"I don't want to be shutting my shop at five o'clock and going home. I want the service to be running 24/7 when trauma is coming in at two o'clock in the morning and they're being seen.

"The private sector doesn't offer that."

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On top of his clinical work, Mr Samuel has held several teaching positions where he identified another skill - mentoring and developing young clinical teams.

"I taught a little bit in the UK in the public and private setting, and as I matured as a clinician, I took on the roles in CT and MRI scanning and that developed my teams, and then I saw that's where my skills are, to mentor and mature and bring my teams to that next level," he said.

"That is my job, I see myself as developing my team, I see my job as mentoring this future generation of clinicians."

As the service head at the LGH, Mr Samuel manages 44 full-time staff, but that number is significantly higher when part-time staff were included.

Launceston General Hospital director of operations Jenifer Duncan said Mr Samuel's vast experience had seen the hospital acquire a clinician with an in-depth knowledge of how to run a complex service in a demanding hospital.

"It's not just his clinical skills, he brings experience and expertise in a range of areas," she said.

"He has helped sort through several issues and quickly implemented some changes that have had an immediate impact."

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In addition to developing clinicians at the hospital, Mr Samuel has also implemented 11 projects aimed at improving medical imaging services for patients at the LGH.

One project would see wait times for magnetic resonance imaging significantly reduced.

"One of the key projects is improving access to the patients, having the report turnaround time if a patient needs an MRI, the patient shouldn't be waiting forever to get that MRI done," he said.

"Based on the acuity and conditions there is a clinically appropriate timeframe, so every service needs to be provided within those appropriate timeframes.

"If I can't do it in the LGH, I'm partnering with our partners in the private sector, St. Luke's, to see "can you provide this within a good timeframe" and what it means for the public patient."

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With the majority of the LGH's patients needing acute care, the project would also see access to urgent medical imaging maintained in the instance equipment went offline.

"CT scans, MRIs and ultrasounds, they do need to go offline every now and then, for maintenance, planned or unplanned or for change of parts.

"When you do that you don't have that equipment available for the patients, so by doing this partnership, what we do is when it's not working here is patients are getting service elsewhere"

"It's about improving access," he said.

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