Lynda Condon, consumer advocate

The CHF community was deeply saddened to hear of the passing recently of Lynda Condon. Lynda was a passionate consumer advocate, and the co-facilitator of the CHF Safety and Quality Special Interest Group. She was always kind and equally fierce in her determination and knowledge about consumer rights in health care. She contributed to many CHF initiatives, leading the group with dedication and vision. The following obituary was provided by her family:

Lynda, a farm girl from Tamworth, trained as a physiotherapist. This got her into the health care sphere initially as a clinician dealing directly with patients and being concerned about their experience. She was there at the beginning of WorkCover and here her passion for getting injured workers back into the work force was ignited. 

With the family moving to Scotland in 1996 she again reinvented herself as an expert in manual handling, even consulting to the Edinburgh morgue (where all those terrible murders end up). Her wide experience was utilized by St Margaret’s College in Leith where she taught the manual handling stream to the physiotherapy students (some of whom thought they could do without this knowledge but were proved wrong). Once she dug in and was sure that legislation and policy was behind her she could move mountains especially on the boards even those that were reluctantly created because legislation/higher policy had mandated their creation (seemingly toothless as they had no budget).

Upon returning to Australia in 2007, she joined a number of boards for organisations focused on consumer health, for example more recently, Donwood Community Aged Care, Ambulance Victoria and Consumer Health Forum. In 2018, she graduated from the Masters of Public Health at Monash University and was ready to apply this knowledge in the workplace. Anyone who had experienced her commitment was impressed in the healthcare arena.

She completed a Masters in Public Health in 2018 and was keen to apply this knowledge in the workplace. She was also invited onto the board of the Donwood Retirement village – a position she only reluctantly gave up. Anyone who had experienced her commitment was impressed and/or bowled over whether in the health care arena or school politics. Has it been mentioned that she could talk? Her legacy is functional improved patient experience in those areas she touched.

She passed on 18 Sept 2021 at home as was her wish: Her last choice in patient experience in the face of COVID restrictions. She leaves behind a legacy of driving change in organisations to achieve better patient outcomes, many individuals who have received her compassionate care and a mantra that everyone deserves the best care possible. She is survived by her husband, three sons and two grandchildren (“Don’t call me Grandma – I am too young for that!”).