THE PASSIONATE PAEDIATRICIAN
The Passionate Paediatrician As the Clinical Director of Paediatrics at The Mercy Hospital for Women, Dan Casalaz (1981) loves working with families and babies and with 6,000 babies born each year at the Mercy, he gets a lot of practice. Not surprisingly, his job is all consuming, looking after the clinical and administrative demands of a major hospital, collaborating with other major neonatal hospitals, as well as teaching and research responsibilities. At the end of the day, Casalaz will tell you his passion lies with caring for the babies and their families. Care is the word that springs to mind when describing Casalaz and his work, he is one of those people who immediately puts you at ease with his softly spoken, compassionate approach. When he talks about his work, he does so from a place of genuine compassion. “I am very privileged to be involved with families during such pivotal, and often incredibly stressful, times in their lives,” he said. “We deal with many sick and extremely premature babies in our nursery and it can be a very hectic place at times, but we also provide care for “routine” newborn problems on our postnatal wards.”
Dan Casalaz
“We run extensive follow up programs and outpatient clinics that cater for our nursery “graduates” as well as the local paediatric population.”
“We work as a team – medical, nursing and other staff – and it is a very supportive environment for the families, as well as staff. This is very important in what can be very emotionally charged situations.”
“My clinical work involves ward rounds to look at each baby and plan their management. It also involves talking with parents about their babies regarding progress, plans and any concerns that might be present.”
“We are unique at the Mercy in that we are the only neonatal hospital in Australia and New Zealand that has at least one Senior Neonatologist in the hospital at all times. This is great for the babies and families but means that I do a night in-hospital
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at least weekly and work weekends regularly.” “Clinical work is 24 hours a day, seven days a week – babies don’t stick with appointment times - and we all take part in after-hours care.” With a 60-bed neonatal special and intensive care unit, the Mercy Hospital cares for nearly 6,000 babies born a year and the constant challenges with the workload, stress on staff and the provision of ever more complex care – often
