Foreword
Board Chair, Professor Neale Fong
Together with the WA Country Health Service Board, I am extremely proud to present the WA Country Health Service 2018-19 Annual Report. This year’s report highlights our many achievements of the past year.
In nursing posts and outreach services, local child health clinics and bustling regional hospitals, the WA Country Health Service plays an important role in the lives of people in country communities now and into the future.
In 2018-19 the Board has made it a priority to ensure that its work is connected to our communities and staff. We’ve been fortunate to share in the remarkable work our staff do every day and we have taken the opportunity to regularly meet with staff, community and local service providers to hear about the challenges they face and the opportunities for us to continue to improve patient care.
It is the dedication of the people we have met in these conversations that have helped the Board and the Executive to crystallise our vision for the future of our organisation through the recently released WA Country Health Service Strategic Plan 2019-2024. The Plan is the result of months of consultation, reflection and debate among country people and our staff, and in many ways is a celebration of our work to date, our culture and values, and is a dynamic and innovative plan for the future.
Our culture of innovation and curiosity has driven a focus toward digital health technologies. The opportunities presented here are particularly important for country WA where vast distances, smaller populations and the diverse needs of communities create unique challenges for healthcare service delivery. Digital innovation is the key to overcoming these challenges. We are fortunate to be building upon an already well developed foundation in telehealth, along with a network of contemporary, technologically enabled healthcare hubs that have been and are being delivered via the extensive infrastructure program progressed over the past decade of investment in country hospitals.
Together with the Board and the broader WA Country Health Service team, I look forward to harnessing the opportunities outlined in the Strategic Plan to achieve greater equity of access to services, empower consumers, better support staff, create a more sustainable health service, and improve the health of country residents, now and for the next generations.
I am pleased to present to you the 2018-19 WA Country Health Service Annual Report.
Professor Neale Fong
Chair
WA Country Health Service Board
Chief Executive, Jeffrey Moffet
From Kalumburu in the North, to Albany in the South and everywhere in-between, the WA Country Health Service has a workforce of thousands of amazing and dedicated people who deliver health care every hour of every day.
In 2018-19 we have progressed many new initiatives to deliver improved services to people in country communities. This year’s Annual Report showcases just a handful of our highlights and achievements.
I was extremely proud to see our staff and services acknowledged with a number of awards and professional recognitions throughout the year. WA Country Health Service staff and services were again successful finalists at the prestigious WA Health Excellence Awards, with Goldfields Renal Service winning the category for ‘Achieving better health outcomes for Aboriginal people.’ Similarly, our overwhelming representation of finalists at the WA Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Awards is testament to the high-quality care we provide across the state.
Awards are appreciated as a way of formally recognising the great work done in country WA, but as an Executive team we also acknowledge and appreciate the work of our many staff who are trusted by their communities to provide lifesaving and life-sustaining care every day.
The Executive team and our regional staff have again enjoyed engaging with our Board members in regional visits throughout the year. In particular, I was pleased to see that our people have been generous with their ideas throughout the rigorous consultation process we have undertaken in forming the new WA Country Health Service Strategic Plan 2019-2024. These interactions have highlighted our organisational strengths, the opportunities and challenges to help guide us in developing a plan to deliver world class health care in the bush.
Our Board membership in 2018-19 includes ten diverse and experienced professionals who are highly respected in their individual fields and across the community. I sincerely thank our Board Chair, Professor Neale Fong, Ms Wendy Newman (Deputy Chair), and Board members Dr Diane Mohen; Ms Kelly Howlett; Mr Michael Hardy; Dr Daniel Heredia; Dr Kim Isaacs; Mrs Mary Anne Stephens; Mr Alan Ferris and Ms Meredith Waters for their assistance in supporting the delivery and development of health services in the communities in which we live and work, now and into the future.
In closing, I would also like to thank the communities and our service partners in regional and remote Western Australia for their ongoing support of our staff and our health service.
Jeffrey Moffet
Chief Executive
Our new Strategic Plan
The WA Country Health Service Board and Executive have recently launched its first Strategic Plan 2019-24. This is a plan that will set the strategic direction of the organisation for the next five years, set against a fifteen year horizon. While our core focus is always improving the quality of care we deliver to country communities in the here and now, we are planning for the future; a future where we realise the transformative potential of new and emerging technologies in health care.
Our plan outlines seven priority areas where we will focus our energy and investment, along with specific actions we will take and how we will measure our success over the next five years.
We are very proud of the plan we have set out for our organisation’s bright future and we look forward to sharing our journey with the people of country Western Australia.
The plan also considers the recommendations of the State Government’s Sustainable Health Review, with its principles of person-centred care, partnerships, clinical excellence and investment in emerging technologies. WA Country Health Service and the Board provided significant input to that review and we welcome the opportunity to cement our commitment to achieving its aims.
View website - Read more about our new Strategic Plan and the priorities and actions that will help us get there.
Our Mission
To deliver and advance high quality care for country WA communities
We are here to improve country people’s health and wellbeing, to care for the sick and to ensure that country communities can access high quality healthcare.
Although Western Australians generally benefit from exceptional health outcomes, we acknowledge that parts of the WA country community continue to face inequity and disadvantage. We are committed to creating a more inclusive, accessible and equitable health system.
We are at a pivotal time in our organisation’s history. Service pressures are constantly increasing, as more people in country communities are managing with a chronic disease or living with a mental health condition. Despite this, we are entering one of the most exciting periods in healthcare for generations.
New technologies, rapid advances in medical practice and the ability to connect with consumers and communities at scale bring a wealth of new opportunities for us. For example, through our roll out of the Emergency Telehealth Service we can now connect staff and patients in facilities across regional WA to specialised emergency doctors based in Perth; supporting local staff to provide life-saving care from thousands of kilometres away and this is just the start…
Our Vision
To be a global leader in rural and remote healthcare.
We aim to deliver services that meet or exceed standards and advance health outcomes for country communities. While we are proud of the services staff deliver, we know that there is scope for us to grow and improve. We want and expect the WA Country Health Service to be at the forefront of the new wave of healthcare, establishing WA as a global leader in regional and remote healthcare in the 21st century.
Our Values
The new Strategic Plan 2019–24 retains the values we established formally in 2009, with a slight modification and the addition of a new, exciting value. Community, Compassion, Quality and Integrity have been the foundations of how we work for the past decade and will continue to be into the future.
Equity now replaces Justice, acknowledging the particular inequity that some regional communities face in accessing healthcare, signifying our commitment to adopting equity as a core value in how and what we do. By including Equity as a core value, we are positioning fairness in healthcare access as a high priority.
Significantly, we have incorporated a new value that applies across a range of disciplines including research, clinical practice and emerging technologies: Curiosity. The inclusion of this value demonstrates that we will continually enquire and seek to understand, using the best evidence, insight and research to improve care and develop our services into the future.
Community
We live and work in country communities. We are invested in the health, wellness and viability of country communities and the vibrancy, diversity and future of country WA.
Compassion
We are inclusive, respectful, and considerate. We care deeply about the people in our care and country communities.
Quality
We provide safe, high-quality care, constantly striving to innovate, improve and achieve trust in our care.
Integrity
We bring honesty, collaboration and professionalism to everything that we do.
Equity
We are passionate about fairness in healthcare for all Western Australians, especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people and communities.
Curiosity
We continually enquire and seek to understand, using the best evidence, insight and research to improve care.