Mary Santos

Head of Department, Physiotherapy and Exercise Physiology

The Sutherland Hospital and Garrawarra Centre

"I manage the Physiotherapy and Exercise Physiology services at the Sutherland Hospital and Garrawarra Centre. That encompasses inpatient, outpatient, residential care and community health.

I work with a really wonderful team and this makes me want to come to work. I want to support my team to thrive and to grow. I love seeing their passion and dedication to the work and the care of their patients.

My immediate family are all in health so I grew up knowing that I would work somewhere in health. I studied physiotherapy because I liked the physical side of things.

I remember when I was doing clinical work and seeing a patient that I commented ‘you look really well today’. My patient came back to me saying ‘yes Mary, I look very well, but I’m not feeling well’. I don’t know why, but that was a strong message to me saying that what we see may not be the truth. It’s important to ask patients and people we work with how they are and how they’re going, so that we can provide them with better support.”