The Western New South Wales Local Health District incorporates 63 Community Health Centres, 38 inpatient facilities and 3 major rural referral hospitals with more than 6000 staff.
There are many unique challenges to delivering health services in the health district including a geographically vast landscape that covers around 250,000 square kilometres, spans across 24 Local Government Areas (LGAs) with 8 of them considered remote with many small rural communities with high health needs and a higher proportion of Aboriginal people. Out of a total population of 270,775 (ERP 2011 census) about 30,000 people identify as being of Aboriginal or Torres Islander descent which represents 11.1% of the total population.
Common to many rural areas the organisation has an ageing workforce resulting in recruitment and retention challenges, especially in remote areas, and a reliance on locum and ‘fly in fly out’ services.
In 2013, Western New South Wales Local Health District commenced its partnership with Studer Group and launched its “Living Well Together” strategy. In planning its future direction the District had two fundamental imperatives – ensuring services are safe and of high quality, and reducing costs to live within funding. Living Well Together focuses on teamwork – the philosophy of what we achieve, we achieve together, regardless of what role we play. Living Well Together is designed to help deliver the best possible experience and outcomes for our patients. Not just sometimes, not just once in a while, but every time.
The changes that have been implemented through the Living Well Together haven’t been easy, however the aligned goals, accountability, actions and innovation across the organisation have allowed Western New South Wales Local Health District to move from the highest level of performance watch with New South Wales Ministry of Health in early 2012 to a zero level of watch, with achievement of results across all domains (pillars). The Ministry has commented that this is the fastest turnaround of an organisation that 18 months ago was really struggling.
This success, commitment and engagement of staff has been recognised with numerous awards being received by the district including the Health Secretary’s Whole of State Baxter Quality Award, the Aboriginal Health Award, the Minister for Health’s Baxter Quality award New South Wales Health Minister Award for Innovation. These awards recognise Western New South Wales Local Health District as being a leader in quality and safety which is reflected in our strategy of Living Well Together.
We are honored to be named the Studer Group Australian Healthcare Organisation of Distinction as this award reflects our team’s commitment, dedication and passion to ensuring we provide a world class health service for our patients, staff and our community.