On the anniversary of our 10th year, we thought we would share with you the journey we have had, and put a few thank you’s on the record to the people we have worked with and supported us along the way.
It all happened about 11 years ago when three Paediatricians from diverse backgrounds set out on a journey with a shared vision. That vision was to bring a complete healthcare service to children in the inner and outer western suburbs of Melbourne.
These three Paediatricians are our Directors, Dr Yolanda Arduca, Dr Natashia Dilla and former Director Dr Jo Martin (pictured on the left)
The pursuit of this vision was made possible by Yolanda’s father, Mr Toni Arduca, when he purchased the property at 82 Holmes Rd, in Moonee Ponds, the first home of CCH, and where we still are today. The Directors spent about 9 months at the drawing board with Lisa Phelps from SED Consulting, designing and planning – their combined vision, along with the additional requirements of starting a business, with mission statements, financial planning and most importantly, a business plan, took shape.
The next step was the logo, which was chosen, and our practice manager, Ilona, was recruited from her longstanding role at Sunshine Hospital. A big Thank you to Ilona, as was been absolutely instrumental in the growth of CCH over the years. Being a Practice Manager is a job that comes with challenges, and Ilona always managed to rise to the challenges she is presented with. (pictured here with the Directors) Ilona left CCH in 2022 to spend more time with her family and work part-time.
Talking about challenges..did we mention that there were a couple more that weren’t planned either?. The team were at a dinner in the first few months of the planning process; former Director Dr Jo Martin announced to the group that she was expecting her 3rd child, due 3 months after CCH was due to start! As you can imagine, jaws hit the ground, and then Dr Yolanda Arduca followed suit a few months later!
Fortunately, Dr Alissa Lim and Dr David James graciously provided locum cover in the early days while the two Directors were on maternity leave. They, too, saw the vision for the clinic and embraced it. We are happy that Dr Lim is still working with us, and Dr James continued until his retirement. We value their contribution.
The day of opening in August 2008 was highly anticipated; furniture was sparse, and fittings were unfinished, but the vision was complete, and work began, as the priority was the provision of high-quality and holistic service to our patients.
We realised the vision of high quality and holistic medicine could only be achieved through recruitment of expertise, not only in practice management and medical practice start-up models but more importantly through partnering with expertise in paediatrics and allied health professionals who work closely with paediatricians. We have been fortunate, and the timing was perfect as we have the best mix of professionals who work together to achieve the goal of holistic and complete care.
We are grateful to all the associate Doctors who have joined us since. We value each and every one of them, and the unique qualities they bring to the practice. (pictured here on the left)
As a practice we are continuing to grow and develop and to ‘get with the times’, be ‘environmentally friendly’, ‘go paperless’ … we are committed to providing comfort and convenience for all who work with us through our sophisticated IT service and support. We also were fortunate that Dr Michele Campbell introduced us to her talented IT guru husband Greg who has now been supporting our changing IT needs over many years. The added benefit is that “Doctors scrawl” is now a thing of the past as the Doctors are even using Dragon Dictation!
To keep the team strong and the vision focussed we have regular clinical meetings to encourage professional development. We are also conscious of quality assurance and have annual patient satisfaction audits. In the area of reception, we have more than tripled staffing and have grown the expertise of our fantastic reception staff.
So, as a practice that saw less than 100 patients in the August of 2008, we are now seeing around 13,000 annually in both of our clinics.
We never envisaged the second site, but the clinic in Keilor came along which supported the vision of bringing complete healthcare service to children in the inner and outer western suburbs of Melbourne. The additional benefit is that patients now have shorter waiting times. It has also opened up opportunities for our Doctors to incorporate more allied health work.
The current Directors, Yolanda and Natashia, would like to thank CCH’s Paediatric Associates and allied health professionals for partnering with the clinic. These people have stayed with us as their businesses grew and they followed their own rainbows and the support of encouraging their colleagues to join CCH.
CCH looks forward to another 10 years of working together and presenting patients with healthy bodies, minds and spirits to our colleagues when they cross over to adult care at the age of 18.
Behind every great woman, is a supportive husband – pictured here our Directors and their husbands. 
Here’s to another 10 Years of helping the community!
