Diane Margaret Francis

1948-2015       

In the early 1970s health care was a high priority for the Whitlam government.  

With a shortage of doctors in the Bendigo area, a committee was set up under the leadership of David Kennedy to get funding to establish a community health centre for this area.

Medical care in Eaglehawk at the time was very deficient with only one solitary general practitioner servicing 8000 people, hence it was chosen as the site for a Community Health Centre. 

By 1973 the process was on the move and a site over the South Virginia Mine chosen. Builders contracted and the first staff advertisements were placed in April 1974.

At first the centre worked from a house in Bright Street and then moved to the new premises in Seymoure Street in December 1976. 

This was a unique service for this community “in need”.

This would be a new concept in health care with emphasis on the team approach working in a general practice setting looking at preventative medicine as well as offering curative care.

This would be the start of a new challenge in health care delivery which today we somewhat take for granted. 

Within the staff group employed in 1976 was a short enthusiastic nurse who saw a challenge of working in community health.

She had done nursing at Lister House Northern District School of Nursing  then was a graduate nurse and did her midwifery at the Bendigo Base Hospital.

Diane Margaret Francis was appointed as a clinic nurse in those early days and continued to work  at the Eaglehawk Community Health Centre for nearly 20 years. 

''Di'' was employed as a clinic nurse and worked hand in hand with doctors, community nurses, psychiatric staff, infant welfare sisters, Eaglehawk councillors, welfare officers and community representatives.

Clinic nurses were the first line face of acute medicine in this environment. Triaging patients, venepunctures, wound management, counselling, home visits, supervising diabetes testing in patients at home, organise meals and home care, antenatal care and palliative management were all part of a clinic nurse’s role.

The treatment room at Seymoure St was rarely empty.  

The term “musical rooms” was a facet of day to day functioning of the centre. You could never predict what sort of health or welfare problem would walk the door. 

The enthusiasm of the staff was renown. The citizens of Eaglehawk rejoiced at the service they were given.

The parochial nature of the centre was known and you just about had to have a passport to cross the Jobs Gully Bridge!

Diane in nearly 20 years she worked at the centre had great respect and knowledge of this community.

Her medical prowess was “spot on”.

She had compassion for all her clients and fellow workers.

She could be so proper and informed as well as being so “down to earth” it was embarrassing! 

She had done midwifery training hence she was the resident midwife.

You may laugh today but we did do deliveries  - emergency ones not planned!  She always hoped we would get to the home before the ambulance so she could show her skills. 

Wound management was her specific interest and her interest continued throughout her career.

Even in her latter years when she was hospitalised once she was giving me a dissertation of what to use to do a dressing.

She enjoyed medical and nursing history and had researched Miners Phthisis in this old mining community. 

She was a consummate worker and dedicated her life to caring for others. 

After leaving community health she took on another challenge and returned to study, getting a post graduate nursing degree through La Trobe University and became a nursing tutor with that facility.

Her teaching skills were notable instructing graduates on the “basics” and she took advantage of whatever was happening around her for her students’ benefit.

I can recall getting coerced into taking a group of Di’s nursing students with me on my round around the nursing home. 

She had a wicked sense of humour and a characteric loud laugh.  A few years ago she was greeted in a theatre in New York getting out of a crowded elevator after a Broadway show by a client of the health centre who was living in New York at the time. The laugh was the give away! 

The era of community health care in Bendigo set a precedence for developing those sorts of services in all communities that now are common place.

The staff  at Eaglehawk Community Health Centre, including Diane Francis, were pioneers.

Vale Diane Margaret Francis.