Meet the team who keep our staff and patients soaring.
Yvonne and Jet are two of the 14 staff members working in our travel services team, responsible for helping get everyone from A to B for appointments, services, and face-to-face care.
Team leader Yvonne, who has worked for Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service for 20 years, said the role was far more than just booking flights.
‘‘Our work involves everything from the initial contact with patients to coordinating with clinicians, clinics, and even navigators across hospitals, the private sector and beyond,’ she said.
‘We’re not just booking flights. We handle patient travel, staff travel, fleet vehicles, cab charges, and more.’
On any given day, there can be more than 80 requests for travel bookings, with some trips needing to be scheduled six months in advance.
There are challenges for the relatively small team needing to manage all these travel requests – particularly ones that may be urgent, such as staff who need to be evacuated from a small community in the path of an incoming cyclone.
However, for Yvonne and Jet, who both have experience in the travel and tourism industry, there is immense satisfaction in being able to navigate the intricacies of the booking systems behind planes, trains and automobiles.
‘I used to work for Virgin Atlantic Holidays in the UK before moving to Australia,’ Yvonne said.
‘Others in the team have worked for airlines like Qantas, Jetstar, and Skytrans, or in the tourism industry.
‘Having a background in travel definitely helps, not just with understanding the systems but also with managing complex situations, like accommodating patients with special needs.’
‘For example, we recently had a patient whose electric wheelchair was 2cm too big to fit into the cargo hold of a particular aircraft.
‘We had to find an alternative flight with an aircraft that had a larger cargo hold door.
‘Some patients also require special equipment like an Eagle lift for boarding, so we need to know which airports and airlines offer that service.’
Jet said her role could be stressful at times, but it was incredibly rewarding.
‘For me, it’s about helping people and knowing that we’re making a difference,’ she said.
‘For example, during COVID, we had to arrange travel for a young child from Mareeba to Brisbane for life-saving heart surgery.
‘There were no flights available, but we managed to get them there in time.
‘Knowing we helped save a life was an amazing feeling.
‘You need to have compassion, quick thinking, and a certain type of personality to thrive in this role. It’s busy, but it’s also a bit of a buzz.’
Jet- whose email signature includes a plane - said it was always entertaining seeing the reaction of people to her name.
‘People usually laugh and say I’m in the perfect profession for my name. I even added a little plane to my email signature, which everyone loves,’ she said.
‘For the record, Jet is short for Jeanette, but I’ve been called Jet since high school.
‘If someone calls me Jeanette, I know I’m in trouble!’
To learn more about careers with Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service, head to our recruitment page.