Redevelopment senior project manager Ray Haikal is designing more than just another building, he’s constructing a world-class healthcare facility that will transform the services and care for a rapidly growing community.
“It’s nice to know that what I do has such a positive impact on the community,” says Ray, a key figure behind many capital works projects occurring across Peninsula Health. “We are delivering something that the community is going to enjoy and take advantage of for generations.”
With a background in architecture, Ray originally made the move to London where he spent time overseas working in residential design and construction, however, he soon found himself back in Melbourne working as a Project Manager in workplace fit outs.
Joining Peninsula Health as a consultant, Ray helped deliver and develop the Ngarnga Centre, a state-of-the-art research facility on the Frankston Hospital campus before joining the organisation on a permanent basis. The new centre has already enhanced the capabilities of our current teams and helped produce quality research in a number of areas.
“What I enjoy most about working at Peninsula Health is the team,” says Ray. “The team makes working here great. It is the reason why I moved here in the first place, even though it’s not that close to home.”
“We have a really good team, with different kinds and levels of experience,” adds Ray. “Whenever there’s something I don’t know or something I find challenging, I know I can rely on my team for help.”
Image: Artist impression of the Frankston Hospital Redevelopment.
When Ray isn’t designing world-class facilities, he is designing tattoos for himself and his friends. As an avid artist and tattooist, Ray often trades the blueprints for a blank canvas, where he finds himself painting landscapes while travelling, or tattooing his friends when they visit for dinner.
“It actually happens more than you think, people come over for dinner and end up leaving with a tattoo,” teases Ray.
“If I could invite anyone to dinner, past or present, I would invite David Attenborough, as you would never get bored with having him around, and I would like to give him an animal tattoo.”
“The tattoos I like the most are the ones I’ve done on myself, especially the tattoo of my cat on my leg,” he adds.
With the Frankston Hospital Redevelopment now well underway, Ray is happily engaging with stakeholders, answering questions about a particular piece of work, or outlining a course of action to ensure the works consider all components.
“Stakeholder engagement is probably my favourite part of project management,” he says.
“I’ve never worked on a project of this size, so that’s in itself is very exciting, but it’s good because I am meeting a lot of new people.”
The redeveloped Frankston Hospital will have modern facilities, amenities and equipment that will support the delivery of enhanced care and patient and staff wellbeing. Increased service capacity will provide more access for people living locally, improving wait times and enabling patients to access more clinical support services closer to home.
For more information on the Frankston Hospital redevelopment, view the designated webpage.
If you have a question about the project, please email fhredevelopment@phcn.vic.gov.au