To My Colleagues,
On January 2nd 1985, Joe Healy, was a very nervous and inexperienced young man starting a journey that shaped and directed his work and professional life. That journey at UHN comes to an end 38 years and 3 months later on March 31st, 2022. I will be retiring from the UHN TEAM at that time.
The growth and wealth of knowledge and experiences in those 38 plus years has been remarkable.
In 1985 we were still running an auto-analyser that ran on pure mechanical peristaltic, gear driven mechanical cam shaft-controlled timing manual loaded samplers with no patient identifiers, manual standard calibrating every ten samples, with results read off a rolling graph paper being corrected by offsets against a manual standard graph.
All results transcribed by hand into a notebook, also manually written, transcribed onto paper requisitions all sorted by hand using peel and stick numbers.
The laboratory of chemistry had over 40 staff and produced about 400-600k results a year.
Now we have computer support, barcoded patient identifiers and touch samples only if there is a problem with clotting, dilutions or other issues.
We have less staff and run about 8-9 million test results a year.
The technology and science underlaying it all has continually changed.
The basic need for good people to staff the lab has not.
In my 38 plus years most of the staff I worked with, I was proud to have worked with due to their professionalism and genuine commitment to the many patients that UHN treats yearly.
I also served all of the members as a union steward and officer of OPSEU Local 571 for over 31 years.
In this I am also very proud of my work that has served the all the members of the local.
I can leave knowing that both LMP at UHN and OPSEU Local 571 are going to be fine without me as both are organizations built to withstand the tests of time.
My most important message to everyone upon my leaving is that life is a journey, not a destination, enjoy the trip, take time to live, enjoy, spend time with loved ones and laugh on the way.
Both UHN and the union can extract from you as much as you will give and there will always be a need for more as both are trying to fulfill duties that can never be completely satisfied as the need is near limitless.
Set your limits and know your rights. Support one another and never be a number, be a person and make a difference. Always remember you can not take care of others if you can not take care of yourself.
I was told Al Capone once said you get far more with a kind word and a gun than a kind word. Everyone remembers the gun part, the need to have the power to back demands. The power to bring change is vitally important, there is a second takeaway, even Capone understood the use and need for a kind word.
I once heard this, be kind, be genuine, look after one another. I hope that everyone can remember that in the days ahead as the challenges will be ever present and the stakes every increasing.
These I leave to those that follow me, I have faith collectively all of you will continue proud traditions of serve to patients, each other and society will view our collective actions with favour.
You are all one day closer to retirement, mine is to soon arrive.
Wishing everyone the best.
Joe Healy
OPSEU Local 571 
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