OUR SPECIALISTS
SIMON WOODS
Simon is an experienced and versatile senior health care consultant with an extensive clinical and executive leadership background.
Simon has practised as a surgeon, in Australia, Scotland and Hong Kong. Simon has further worked in public and private settings and diverse hospitals including academic, quaternary level facilities, private hospitals and regional centres. In addition to his clinical training, he has an MBA and has had extensive experience in senior hospital leadership.
Simon has worked as Executive Director of Medical Services, Group Director of Health Informatics and General Manager of a large private hospital. He has undertaken a variety of interim executive roles, with an emphasis on improving systems and culture.
He is a member of the Safer Care Victoria Academy and an associate fellow of the Australasian College of Health Services Management.
JILL BUTTY
Jill Butty has been at the Royal Women’s Hospital as Director of Quality and Safety for over 8 years, with a similar role at another health facility for over 10 years. Jill’s current role includes patient safety, quality improvement, incident investigation, risk management, and accreditation.
Jill is also a member of the Safer Care Victoria Academy and works with SCV to conduct complex safety reviews, provide training in Clinical Governance and support health services in learning from serious incidents.
Jill has been the Quality Lead for the Statewide Regional Maternal and Perinatal Mortality and Morbidity Committees project, and is currently a member of the Board of The Kilmore and District Hospital.
FIONA LUKAITIS
Fiona has worked in diverse roles as a clinician, midwife, educator, project manager, research, Operational Manager and Director of Quality & Safety and Service improvement.
She is an accredited ACSQHC National Standards Assessor with ACHS. She has developed significant knowledge and expertise in health service delivery, systems improvement, change management and clinical governance.
Fiona has managed local, regional and national systems improvement projects and has a particular interest in workforce development and how teams work together to improve outcomes and manage change.
In 2014 Fiona completed training as a nationally accredited Mediator (dispute resolution) with LEADR (Lawyers engaged in alternate dispute resolution) now Resolution Institute. Fiona has been involved in designing and the reconstruction of clinical governance frameworks based on evidenced best practice, ensuring that health services have open and transparent systems and processes to deliver quality services, engaged consumers and measurable outcomes.
NICOLA CUNNINGHAM
Dr Nicola Cunningham is an Emergency Physician at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, and a Senior Forensic Physician at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (VIFM). Nicola also works with the Department of Forensic Medicine, Monash University, and the Incident Response Team for Safer Care Victoria.
Nicola is the Editor-in-Chief of the Clinical Communiqué, and Medico-Legal Editor of Emergency Medicine Australasia. Her roles provide valuable insights into community and hospital medicine, and the interface between these areas, as well as a unique perspective on the medico-legal aspects of clinical practice.
Nicola is responsible for the Forensic Medicine Registrar Program at the VIFM, utilising her skills in medicine and the law to introduce trainees from general practice, critical care and physician streams to the vagaries of both these worlds. She is a passionate advocate for patient and staff safety, creatively using education and legal instruments to challenge the status quo.
GABRIELLE CASTILLO
Gabrielle is a highly experienced and service orientated senior quality and risk health professional with an extensive clinical, administrative, managerial, educational and governance background.
With over 20 year’s professional experience, Gabrielle has worked extensively in both the private and public sector as a Registered Nurse, Endorsed Midwife, Public Health Clinician and General Manager, Quality, Safety and Risk. Gabrielle was recently responsible for facilitating Safer Care Victoria’s Sentinel Event Program and is currently supporting the Department of Health and Human Services in clinical and risk based activities with the COVID-19 emergency response.
Gabrielle has significant expertise in in clinical and corporate risk management, incident investigation, OHS, clinical governance and oversight of medicolegal activities. Her skills in incident investigation, complaints management, facilitating team based incident reviews and delivering incident management training is outstanding and she thrives in promoting risk ownership across health services and agencies.
LIAT WATSON
Ms Liat Watson is a member of the Safer Care Victoria (SCV) Academy - part of SCV’s Incident Response Team – trained to undertake complex systems safety and incident analysis reviews within a contributory factors framework, using human-factors, systems-thinking and just-culture approaches. She provides training to health service staff in incident analysis methodologies (Root Cause Analysis) and provides expert input as a consumer representative on sentinel event review panels.
An accredited consumer leader with specialised training in co-production and the role of consumers in clinical governance, she has worked with the Australian Commission for Safety & Quality in Healthcare in the development of the National Standards (v2) and sits on various peak bodies including the Victorian Clinical Council, the Victorian Perioperative Consultative Council and Safer Care Victoria’s Patient & Family Council.
Prior to becoming involved in the healthcare sector Liat worked in the stockbroking and human resource industries.
JEN MORRIS
Jen Morris is a patient/consumer perspectives expert working across the fields of healthcare quality, safety, regulation, governance, education and research.
With a focus on patient and consumer perspectives and experiences, Jen has extensive experience as an advisor and decision-maker within health services, professional organisations, educational institutions, regulatory bodies and government. Jen also has governance experience as a non-executive director on corporate and regulatory boards in the health sector, and in healthcare systems research within the University of Melbourne’s Law and Public Health Unit.
Her consulting and advisory experience spans the whole quality and safety improvement cycle – including roles focused on health service culture, complaint management, incident review, practitioner education, behaviour change initiatives, regulatory oversight and systems design.