Michelle is a Registered nurse at Dunstan Hospital and has been for 17 of her 25years as a nurse. She recently went to a conference in Australia on rehabilitation with about 200 delegates in attendance. This would not have been possible without the backing and finance available through the Tim and Marilyn Fleming Rural Health Education Trust (see below).

 

Tim is a cardiologist and Emeritus Professor of Cardiology. Tim and his wife Marilyn spend half a year in America where they are from and half a year in New Zealand, principally in Dunedin and Central Otago.

 

Tim graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1965 and has specialised in the field of cardiology.

 

Tim has been an invasive cardiologist from 1972, working in the summer months as clinical professor of medicine at the University of Washington Hospital, Seattle in the CCU.

During the North American winter months 2001 to present Tim has been a consultant cardiologist at Dunstan Hospital, Central Otago, New Zealand.

 

He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC) and also a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP).
His medical interests are Consultative/Diagnostic Clinical Cardiology. He has an office at the Marinoto Hospital, Dunedin.

 

Tim and his wife Marilyn have generously set up an Education Trust. This is called The Tim and Marilyn Fleming Rural Health Education Trust. This Trust seeks to provide financial support for the education of health professionals (principally nurses, but also allied health professionals like Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists) employed by and contracted to Central Otago Health Services Limited (COHSL), and/or to foster research projects in the area of rural health undertaken at or in association with Dunstan Hospital.
 

The Tim and Marilyn Fleming Education Trust 
(Information mostly from the internet)

 

The Rural Health Education Fund, established by Alexandra's Tim and Marilyn Fleming, has been set up to support the education of the health professionals of COHSL/Dunstan Hospital to attend training and post-graduate courses nationally and internationally. 

 

The goal being to keep nursing and Allied Health staff abreast of cutting-edge clinical advances and contemporary practice while keeping their jobs and roles in Central Otago. 
Tim says he and his wife Marilyn decided to provide the seed funding for the Rural Health Education Fund to support nurses and Allied Health staff in a similar way doctors are. 

 

“Doctors here are well looked after to go to medical conferences and get plenty of opportunities for post-grad study,” Tim explains. 

 

But nurses and Allied Health personnel don’t get that same level of opportunity, so we wanted to support that. 

 

“Part of it is that my mother and my sister were nurses, and I’m a physician. 
“The staff are exposed to a lot, whether it is the stresses included in the job, or infectious diseases… so it would be good if they could have that time off to develop and have any opportunities they need.”

 

Tim and Marilyn say they are now looking to grow the fund and seek philanthropists and donors who may be interested in supporting the fund.
“These staff members need support,” Tim says. “We have established it now, and our goal is to get the fund up to around $250,000. 
“These staff are often the people patients remember most about their hospital stay, so we want to invest in them.”

 

The CEO of Dunstan Hospital, Dr. Kathy de Luc, explains that community support has been fundamental in maintaining service provision and expanding offerings over the years for COHSL. 

 

“As a community-owned hospital and health services provider, community support has always been key in enabling delivery of services. 

 

“We see this in quite significant investments, such as our CT scanner, but also in a variety of equally important ways, such as volunteering of time and fundraising for equipment”. 

 

“This Education Fund helps us support our staff to gain skills and experiences that ultimately can be provided back to our communities. 
“The establishment of the Fund is very exciting and we wish to extend our sincere thanks to Tim and Marilyn Fleming for their generosity in establishing the Trust and their work in this space. 

 

“We also would like to thank Central Otago Health Incorporated (COH Inc) and our doctors at Dunstan for contributing to the fund.” 
If people are interested in donating and supporting COHSL’s teams and services, there are several different avenues.  

 

 

The Tim and Marilyn Education Fund is for staff education, but there is also the Friends of Dunstan Charitable Trust, which is a community-based charity dedicated to supporting purchases of equipment for Dunstan Hospital. 

 

You can also donate to COH Inc directly and to their Palliative Care Trust which supports end of life needs; and people can also support COHSL/Dunstan Hospital directly by making donations directly to the hospital. 

 

“The appreciation for our community support from the team here at COHSL cannot be overstated, and we recognise that we are privileged to be so actively supported by our communities, friends and families,” Kathy de Luc says. 
 

 

About 22 attended the breakfast meeting to hear Andrew King the Principal of Dunstan High School. He came from England with his wife Kim to Wellington in 2009. He had been a top badminton player in the UK and began teaching during the day and coaching after school. After teaching in the Hutt he came to Dunedin as his wife had a job with Sport Otago. He taught at OBHS then Milton and returned to OBHS as the deputy principal
 
Andrew arrived at Dunstan in July and was impressed with the staff and their great attitude towards their pupils. His vision is for Excellence across the board and pastoral care is very important. The school has a strong foundation and he wants to build on that. He appreciates the support from Rotary and is keen to build on that. Perhaps his 2 student leaders can be invited to join Rotary and we pay their fees. He is very keen to talk to our board re a closer bond with the school.

 

Barry