People of OPH

Evangeline Colombus has been at OPH for nearly 36 years, an anniversary she will celebrate on New Year’s Eve 2022. Evangeline is the Administrative Assistant in Engineering and has held roles in many departments at OPH. She says, “This year I have been here for 36 years! My children were 2 and 5 when I started and now they are grown adults and I have a grandson.”

When she started in Catering (Hotel Services at the time) at OPH on the 31^st of December 1986, Evangeline had arrived six weeks earlier as an emigrant from New Zealand. She had previously worked in the same role in the spinal unit at Burwood Hospital in Christchurch and loved it so much that she immediately applied to OPH when she arrived in Australia. Evangeline says, “I applied as soon as I arrived, and I was so excited to start! I was a tea lady up on the wards and I loved it, it was great. The people were lovely, and the patients all loved us because we brought them nice things to eat and drink,” she adds with a laugh.

From her role in Catering she took on several temporary and leave-cover roles, including working as a stationery clerk, a pharmacy impress clerk managing stock, and providing clerical relief in medical records. When an opportunity to provide clerical support in engineering came up, Evangeline moved over to the department which has now been her home for 26 years. Her role in Engineering has evolved and grown while she has been there and she appreciates all the development opportunities she has had, saying “I’ve been lucky enough over the years to be given many opportunities to learn new things. I was very involved in home care for a few years (managing equipment for patients), and I was the OPH vehicle fleet coordinator for many years. As OPH has changed over the years, my roles have changed and even now it is constantly evolving.”

OPH has changed over the years as well, with new wards built, the reconfiguration and the increasing number of patients each year. Evangeline says, “The way our hospital is evolving is fantastic and the new wards and services are amazing.”

She loves being part of her team, saying “In engineering, many of our team have been there forever. One of our team members has been there for over 40 years! Our team is amazing, and I love working with them. It’s about us all working together; what they do makes my job easier and hopefully what I do makes their job easier.” She is not ready to retire yet and says, “I just want to keep on doing what I do well. The developments and growth at OPH are exciting and it’s such a great place. It’s so convenient for everyone here; parking is easy, it’s close to home so there’s no long travel time, and we have a good work/life balance.”

But it’s the people who make OPH the place Evangeline calls home, and the key reason she finds it so rewarding. “There’s a real feeling of community here. That’s why people come and don’t want to leave. Walking down the corridor, you say hello to everyone even if you don’t know them. It’s like a community hospital that is just growing and changing, it’s very nice, very friendly.”

Evangeline is a “mad gardener” and loves the outdoors. She loves spending time with her family picnicking and just being together, as well as her church family. She says, “I also love my OPH family. We’ve had great fun over the years, and lots of fantastic gatherings with the Social Club (Club OPH), like a wine tour of the Swan Valley, Christmas in July, the end of year Christmas function at Strike Bowling. I’m looking forward to this aspect starting up again once we are through COVID. I love it!”