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“The company is not too big not to know just about everyone.”

Ian Hellyer

Having started at Getz Healthcares' predecessor Telectronics in 1971, Ian Hellyer has been a valued member of the company for almost 51 years. Now IT Administrator and Facilities Coordinator, Ian has seen the company grow and evolve over the past 50 years alongside the advancements that have shaped today’s healthcare industry. 

Ian’s journey at Getz Healthcare started when he was a school leaver. “Electronics was a hobby,” explains Ian. “I left high school, and actually it was one of my sisters who noticed an advertisement for Telectronics. So, I applied for that, talked about some of the hobbies that I had, and started work.” 

“Now that was a production line. It was a fairly small company back then, so, it was a mix of assembling circuit boards and some metalworking. From there, I moved into quality control, then into the test department, and that was a department of two or three.” 

During his time at Telectronics, Medtel and now Getz Healthcare, Ian has worn many hats within the areas of technology and IT across the business. “A year or two after I started, the business started expanding, more people coming on. Eventually, we moved to much larger premises when the product range increased. At some point, we merged with a sister company which supplied X-ray equipment.”

“I did major installations. For example, I worked in ICU and coronary care at Westmead before the hospital opened. Similarly, at one called Casuarina Hospital, which was a new hospital in Darwin. I worked in their ICU doing all the installation for the equipment that we sold to them. I helped install what is now the GE Lunar machines. Their machines measure bone density. We supplied some nuclear med equipment to Royal Prince Alfred years ago. So, I did some work on that. After service, I moved into IT, but I still do a little bit of this. People occasionally come and just ask questions.”

Ian has seen major technological and logistical changes, both at Getz Healthcare and within the medical industry over the past five decades. “The evolution has been away from component repair to sub-assembly replacement,” explains Ian. “There’s been a change in the manufacturing. In the old days, components were relatively large. You could easily pick them up. Now you need tweezers to pick them up, good eyesight, and quite good skills. All these things, these days, are assembled through robotic systems. In other words, component density has increased a lot. You can put a lot more parts into a given space, as it were.” 

Commenting on the favourite part of his almost 51 years at Getz Healthcare, Ian says, “I like the challenge that spills over to my other interests, science, and engineering. It's not necessarily that I do those things, but I try and understand those things as it helps keep the brain a bit active.” Speaking of the team at Getz Healthcare, Ian says, “I see that they're compassionate about what they do. And willing to listen.” 

How would you describe Getz Healthcare? “The company is not too big not to know just about everyone. In other words, it doesn't have that large corporate structure where you don’t know who other people are.” 

Just a few more rapid-fire questions to get to know Ian a little more…

  • What do your weekends look like?

    “I get up late. If there's some tools I need to buy, I'll go and have a look at that. Before that unmentionable virus popped up, I would have been going out to another guy's place and working on my old car. I bought my first car, which I still own, in 1974. And the current car I'm driving is my second car. So, I want to get my old car back to running condition and be able to drive it. And if I need to do work on the current car I drive, unless it's a major job, then I'll do that.”
     

  • Do you have a secret skill?

    “I don't know if I have a secret skill. Although I have an interest in engineering. Scientific things, history, archaeology, geology, mining.”
     

  • How would you describe yourself?
    “I would say that I'm approachable.”
     
  • Are you a morning or a night person?
    “Really a night person.”
     
  • Chips and salad or veggies and mash?
    “Veggies and mash. Well, chips are really a form of mash, aren’t they!”
     
  • Do you prefer the beach or the mountains?
    “Mountains. The mountains are more interesting. There are more interesting things in the mountains, a wider variety of what you can see, and depending on which country might go to, you can see that perhaps a valley may have been caused by ice erosion way back when. I look at the environment as more than just what it looks like, but sometimes how it was formed.”
     
  • Would you rather speak to animals or speak ten different foreign languages?
    “I think foreign languages would be better.”
     
  • Are you a dog or cat person?
    “Cat. I inherited an abandoned cat many years ago. I only ever had one cat. It was one of those kinds of animals that had an ESP and was always out the front when I arrived home in my car.”
     
  • Christmas movies or horror movies?
    “Light horror. Light and it might be a comedic horror movie. I used to watch Christmas movies, but they all turned out to be about the same.”
     
  • Favourite movie of all time?
    “I don't know if I have a favourite one of all time. I like Shawshank Redemption. That one does spring to mind. It was an interesting movie. And some of the Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Westerns.”
     
  • What was your very first job?
    “My first full-time job was Telectronics, which eventually became Getz. But part-time, when I was in school, I was packing in a small supermarket. One of those corner stores that no longer exists. And I did some cleaning at an RSL club on a Sunday.”
     
  • If I didn't work at Getz Healthcare, I would be…
    “Hard one. If I wasn't working at Getz Healthcare, it would be something else in electronics. But if it wasn't electronics, then it would be mining.”
     

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Pioneers in global distribution for over 110 years, Getz Healthcare is the destination of choice for the medical industry, connecting communities with the latest and most advanced equipment, products, and services from around the world.

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