Mater CEO Heidi Bayliss on her journey to the top

Heidi Bayliss has worked just about every job in a hospital. She discusses her brilliant career and her passion for helping the vulnerable.

CEO of Mater Hospital, North Sydney, Heidi Bayliss. Picture: John Appleyard

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We’ve got a bad habit of always thinking the best comes from somewhere else – on the opposite side of the world – like London or New York. But what if the very best is home grown, can be produced right here on Sydney’s own North Shore?

To any young local girl looking for inspiration we can say, here she is. On your very doorstep. You need look no further.

This is the story of Heidi Bayliss and we defy you to meet a better example of how growing where you’re planted can help you smash the glass ceiling. Yes that’s a busy metaphor but we’re not talking greenhouses. We’re talking celebrating where you come from and excellence on an international scale. Formidable.

Heidi is Chief Executive Officer of the Mater Hospital at North Sydney, ranked among the best hospitals in Australia, and she lives nearby in North Sydney.

The career that led Heidi here is nursing. So how does a nurse get to be the CEO of a hospital? Heidi’s answer is immediate: “Nurses know how hospitals run.”

But maybe there’s another factor – passion: “I love hospitals, always have. There is never a dull moment, there’s always something happening. No day is ever the same as another. And even after 30 years, I’m still learning something new every day.”

Heidi was educated at Roseville College. She claims she was an average student although a good all-rounder: “I was good at sport, for example. But I didn’t start my career determined to reach the top. It’s more a matter of me being at the right place at the right time – and I’ve been given so many opportunities.”

Heidi Bayliss in a new birthing suite in the Mater maternity ward. Picture: John Appleyard

Heidi repeats this explanation about opportunity often. There is no vanity or self-absorption. Instead, hers is an appealingly outward looking story, with the focus on others.

“I left school and took a gap year in 1989. After returning from overseas I started as an assistant nurse, at Hirondelle, a small private hospital in Chatswood, knowing I’d do nursing at university the following year.”

In the nursing lingo of the time, this is starting at the bottom. But the choice of a career in nursing was no accident. Heidi’s mother, Margaret, was the sister-in-charge of a nursing home and Margaret must have been a positive influence on Heidi. Ask many women why they chose the career they did and often it’s because they don’t want to be like their mother or have the experiences she had. Not so in Heidi’s case.

“My mother is resilient, courageous, strong, caring and always on the go – even at her age. She is my greatest supporter and I still talk to her every day. She’s 79 and she’s amazing,” Heidi says.

“Mum worked really hard throughout my childhood, so she gave me a really strong work ethic. Seven days a week she ran her private nursing business and then when she started at the nursing home, my sister and I would go there after school. We’d spend time with the residents and we learnt about interaction between nurses and patients.”

After Heidi graduated she took a position at Royal North Shore Hospital. A little later she took her only job outside the north shore, working at Royal Prince Alfred, training in critical care: “It was fantastic – I loved it, experiencing the dramatic side of a nurse’s work – stabbings, drug overdoses, car accidents.”

But in 1999 Heidi had the first of her three children, so in 2000 she moved to North Shore Private Hospital, working part time in intensive care, on rosters allowing her to spend weekdays with her small children.

It’s part of the Ramsay Health Care Group, so Heidi gained a different style of experience there. She spent the next 18 years with the Group, the last five at Castlecrag Private and Hunters Hill Private.

“I worked in every role; registered nurse, after-hours manager, bed manager, nursing unit manager and then assistant director of clinical services. Then hospital manager, then CEO. I learnt about the medical side, finances and strategy.”

She was put through the Ramsay Leadership Program and McKinsey management consultants’ Executive Leadership Program. These are prized opportunities. Even being invited to take part is a sign of management’s belief in your leadership talent.

But Heidi was contacted by St Vincent’s Health Australia in 2018 and invited to become CEO of The Mater.

“It was a very difficult decision. The Ramsay Group had given me so much, so many opportunities. Do I leave after nearly 20 happy years to take on a much bigger role at such a prestigious hospital? But I thought, you know what – you only live once.”

It was different: “I’d never worked at a faith-based not-for-profit hospital before.”

“But I could see what this meant, literally as I walked through the main entrance. The Hospital’s mission was palpable – everybody is warmly greeted – patients and visitors. It comes from the Sisters who founded the hospital. Their mission was to care for the sick, the poor and the vulnerable.”

Heidi has held her position for only a little more than two years but already her contribution is noticeable. Theatre and cardiac catheter lab upgrades were completed over the 2020-21 Christmas break. A new palliative care unit is just on the horizon and right now, Heidi is eager to show off the Hospital’s Centre for Wellbeing, to open in early March.

The Wellbeing Centre is a space of grace and style, paying homage to the elegant Federation Arts and Crafts style cottage it once was.

Heidi Bayliss in the hospital's healing garden. Picture: John Appleyard

“We want it to be a place that’s an absolute pleasure to be in and that’s been made possible by a generous benefactor who saw the need for such a place for our patients undergoing cancer treatment.”

“Now the Mater can truly be a one-stop shop for all our cancer services and supports – not just surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and our excellent nursing; but for all the complementary supports like exercise classes, psychology, music, art therapy – even wig fitting – the types of things that really make a difference during the treatment journey.

“These supports can easily be overlooked but we see the evidence these extra services improve a cancer patient’s outcome. For example, an important new study, published in late 2020, confirms exercise helps fight cancer.”

The innovations Heidi has welcomed to the Mater are good news after the harrowing year that has just passed.

“When COVID-19 hit there was fear and anxiety. But we watched Melbourne and knew that a lot of the spread in hospitals happened via staff break rooms. So we designed new staff break areas and approaches to breaks.

“One of the toughest things to implement was significantly limiting visitors – restricting patients to only one visitor for their whole stay. For our new mothers this was really hard. Yes, fathers could visit but it was a terrible thing to have to bar the young siblings of the newborn.”

Despite the stresses, COVID-19 brought positive changes: “We’ll continue to hold virtual meetings in and between medical specialty groups, because we found attendance is better.”

Just as all the world’s bounty can be found on the north shore – so can its darkness. It’s not immune from the scourge of domestic violence. Heidi has reinforced the hospital’s financial commitment to local women’s refuge, Mary’s House.

“We have a special connection with Mary’s House because Mater means mother. Our maternity services mean we have a strong connection to women. The impact of COVID-19 on domestic violence statistics was deeply troubling.

“Two thirds of women living with domestic violence experienced a sharp increase when COVID-19 started. And 33 per cent of women seeking refuge during COVID-19 were experiencing violent or coercive behaviour for the first time.”

Such social awareness grounds Heidi. But does her North Shore pedigree leave her vulnerable to the criticism she only knows a life of gilded privilege?

Heidi Bayliss speaks with Mater Head of Obstetrics Dr Adrian Kwok. Picture: John Appleyard

Heidi’s values and commitment rebut this: “You can’t work in healthcare over a lifetime without coming across the needs of others – without exposure to the raw, bleak sides of what it means to be human. You learn so much about respect for all people, when you meet the sick and the vulnerable. It is very humbling – and I feel extremely privileged to have this opportunity.”

ends.

Originally published as Mater CEO Heidi Bayliss on her journey to the top