Sister Mary Bernice Elphick

Ms REBA MEAGHER (Cabramatta—Minister for Health) [3.20 p.m.]: I pay tribute to Sister Mary Bernice Elphick. Honourable members would have been saddened to hear of the recent death of Sister Mary Bernice Elphick. Sister Mary Bernice dedicated her life to the success of the St Vincent's Hospital campus at Darlinghurst. Her quiet determination and love of St Vincent's patients and medical staff endeared her to everyone.

Sister Bernice Elphick became a Sister of Charity in 1946 after completing her nursing training at St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne. She was appointed Mother Rectress of Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital in 1963, managing the hospital and being the Mother Superior of the Convent. During her time at St Vincent's, Sister Bernice saw the creation of the Garvan Institute in 1963, oversaw the redevelopment of St Vincent's Private Hospital, which opened in 1976, and was instrumental in the establishment of the St Vincent's Clinic in 1991, a clinic modelled on the famous Mayo Clinic in the United States. Sister Bernice was also involved in the establishment of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in 1994. In April 2004 the Sister Bernice Wing at St Vincent's Private Hospital was officially opened in her honour.

As reported recently in the local press, Sister Bernice could reduce the late Kerry Packer to "a quivering jelly". She was reportedly someone that Mr Packer could never say no to. She also counted the famed heart surgeon the late Victor Chang among her many friends. Sister Bernice was forever mindful of the traditions and standards that had to be upheld by her religious order, the Sisters of Charity. The Sisters of Charity order was founded in Dublin in 1815 by Mother Mary Aikenhead. The apostolate of caring for "the sick poor" central to Mary Aikenhead's vision soon led to her founding St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin.

In 1838 five nuns established a branch of the Sisters of Charity in Sydney. In the same spirit as Mother Mary Aikenhead, her Australian daughters quickly established hospitals in Australia's four eastern States beginning in 1857 with St Vincent's Darlinghurst under Mother Baptist de Lacy. For the greater part of the next 130 years the Sisters of Charity led these centres of excellence in health care. Only last year St Vincent's Hospital Darlinghurst celebrated its 150^th anniversary. St Vincent's Hospital is one of the 16 hospitals run by the charity order. It is Australia's oldest Catholic hospital and very much at the cutting edge of patient care, treatment and research. Sister Bernice's total length of professional service spanned more than six decades and she spent some of her retirement years back at the hospital complex working with doctors and patients as a volunteer.

I ask the House to join me and all those who held Sister Bernice in affection and esteem in honouring her memory and in conveying our sincere and heartfelt condolences to her fellow Sisters of Charity, her family and all the staff, patients and volunteers at the St Vincent's campus.

Mrs JILLIAN SKINNER (North Shore—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) [3.22 p.m.]: I speak on behalf of members on this side of the House in paying tribute to the wonderful contribution that Sister Bernice made to health care, and in particular to St Vincent's Hospital. I had the great privilege of meeting Sister Bernice and sharing confidences with her—confidences that I have never broken to this day, and I will not. She was very concerned about public health care in particular and about things that did not go quite right.

Sister Bernice, as the Minister said, gave 60 years of service to the community. She was very involved in St Vincent's Hospital since 1963. She helped establish the Garvan Institute, oversaw the redevelopment of St Vincent's Private Hospital and had a very close involvement with the Victor Chang Institute. She was well recognised by all in the hospital and dearly loved by all the clinicians and of course her fellow nuns. She was known as a frenetic fundraiser—nobody could say no to Sister Bernice. She was a woman with a tremendous awareness of a tradition of outstanding ethics, as one would expect. Her care for the sick was second to none. I join with the Minister and all members of this House in paying tribute to Sister Bernice and passing our condolences to all her knew her.