Health promise
Leaders overseeing newly formed Grampians Health have stressed Wimmera service and workforce consolidation and expansion sit at the core of the entity’s direction and planning.
New management board chair Bill Brown and interim chief executive Dale Fraser were adamant on Monday that the formation of Grampians Health meant ‘more services for people closer to home’.
They dismissed suggestions the new body, formed from a merger between Wimmera Health Care Group, Stawell Regional Health and Edenhope and
District Memorial Hospital with Ballarat Health Services, represented a rationalistic approach to western Victorian service provision.
They instead insisted that, based on a larger operating base, it would open the door for greater service growth and provision across a broader area of western Victoria.
Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley gave the controversial voluntary merger approval to proceed last week and Grampians Health came into effect on Monday.
Mr Foley said the merger followed 18 months of ‘detailed work, including extensive community and staff consultation across all health services and communities’, and would lead to better health outcomes in western Victoria.
“Patients from each of the services will continue to be able to access quality care from their local facility, with no loss of services,” he said.
“There will be no reductions in staffing levels and staff will continue to work when and where they work today unless they wish to change.
“The integration will provide local communities with greater access to clinical expertise and options for care closer to home and help safeguard and nurture the career paths of their valued staff.”
Mr Fraser, Ballarat Health Services chief executive and originally from Horsham, has the role of interim chief executive for the next six months.
He will work alongside Catherine Morley, Wimmera Health Care Group, Andrew Saunders, Edenhope and District Memorial Hospital, and Kate Pryde, Stawell Regional Health.
Warrnambool resident Bill Brown is independent chair of the new health board.
Mr Brown said in a gathering at Wimmera Base Hospital the launch of the health service was a great day for the region.
“Everything we will be directing our minds and attention to is the growth of services to better service the communities that are in our coverage area,” he said.
“The new board will be meeting in weeks, if not days, and we’ll immediately start planning – not just in relation to a senior executive team but also to reassure our staff that nothing has changed.
“We’ll then start to change the clinical service model we want for the next five to 10-plus years.
“The clinical service process will start very quickly, along with a strategic planning process. Both processes will involve engagement with our communities. We invite our communities to share ideas and to get involved.”
Mr Brown stressed that a specific goal in the project was to create longterm community value.
“We have to create long-term sustained change, because the problems are long term and sustained,” he said.
“Sitting within the bones of the organisation is a commitment to ensure there is transparency of funding and transparency of services.
“The board is very conscious of ensuring we have a covenant with the community to ensure health outcomes that you and I might want to receive, we can receive.
“We also want to bring the community along with this conversation so they can be the strongest advocates for us as a health service.
“We’ve seen great needs for things such as further investment in infrastructure, staff to come and work for us – we need to grow our staff base – we need more from our education providers, to provide great learning opportunities for nurses, doctors and allied health staff, cleaners, cooks, administration staff, whoever they may be.
“Being a rural Victorian shouldn’t mean you have to leave rural Victoria to work. It’s about creating a longterm capacity for them to have fulfilling careers locally with the benefit of education and further training should they want it.
“Everything we’re doing is about trying to create long-term value.
“I know people might think this is about short term ‘off we go’. Naturally in the shorter term the formation of the organisation is going to require day-to-day mechanics to get things going. So the board needs to keep pushing forward to think further into the future to create that long-term goal that we collectively want.
“Our commitment is to achieve those promises and to maintain a level of service and level of opportunity and hopefully improve it.
“We‘re not looking backwards, we’re looking forwards. As a board we’re going to be accountable, not just to Spring Street, but to everyone in our community.
“Everyone is going to have a voice. And that doesn’t end with our service-planning or strategic-planning process. It goes on daily, weekly, monthly, yearly.”
West Wimmera Health Service and Rural Northwest Health are outside the merger and Mr Fraser said Grampians Health would ensure it would provide ‘strong’ support for both.
“A strong hospital in Horsham is good for the Wimmera because it can bring staff resources and skills that those communities need every day,” he said.
“We will be working with them every day to ensure we are synergistic as to what their needs are and be collaborative and co-operative. We do those things regularly.”
Mr Brown: “At the end of the day, what it’s all about is providing services to the people who need them as close as possible to home.”
Nine of 10 Grampians Health board members come from the merged health services, with all four services gaining representation on the board.
Other board members are Avril Hogan, Edenhope; David Anderson, Heather Pickard and Cora Trevarthen, Ballarat; Rhian Jones and Meghraj Thakkar, Stawell; and Marie Aitken, Nicholas Jones and Anthony Schache, Wimmera.