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GWAHS Launches Health Plan For The Future

The Greater Western Area Health Service has launched its Corporate Strategic Plan that focuses on the future of its services for and its communities and patients.

Greater Western Area Health Service Chief Executive Dr Claire Blizard said the plan was underpinned by the directions of the State Plan: A New Direction for NSW and provides a blueprint for what GWAHS hopes to achieve during the next five years.

"Health care has come a long way in the last few decades," Dr Blizard said.

"Medical research, health technology, advances in diagnosis and treatment, and preventive health strategies such as immunisation have all helped to improve our general level of health, reduce premature death rates and increase our average life expectancy. The increasing number of older people is generating significant additional demand for health services. This growth in demand, together with community expectations regarding access to the latest medical technology, is also pushing up health costs at a rapid rate.

"Some groups in the community continue to have much poorer health than the general population, pointing to a need for ongoing effort and new approaches to reduce health inequity. Added to this are the growing difficulties being experienced in ensuring that there are sufficient numbers of doctors, dentists, nurses, allied health professionals and other staff in the right locations to provide the health services that people need," Dr Blizard said.

Based on the GWAHS vision 'Healthy people, now and in the future', the plan recognises that the Area Health Service can't deliver health services in isolation.

"Our success occurs in partnership with other health and welfare services and the community. This plan focuses on the way we do business and ensures that our services continue to be responsive to health needs and experiences of people who use our services," Dr Blizard said.

To meet the vision of improving the health and wellbeing of residents, GWAHS has adopted the strategic directions developed for the NSW Health system. These strategic directions are:

• Make prevention everyone's business

• Create better experiences for people using health services

• Strengthen primary health and continuing care in the community

• Build regional and other partnerships for health

• Make smart choices about costs and benefits of health services

• Build a sustainable health workforce

• Be ready for new risks and opportunities

Based on these directions, GWAHS has focused planning on:

1. Communities and patients. GWAHS must strive for healthier people, improved health of Aboriginal people, high quality health services, improved access to care people need and engaged communities.
   

2. External partners. GWAHS must engage our partners in improving the health of our communities.
   

3. Internal Processes. GWAHS must deliver person-centred care and continuous service review, effectively networked services, services that are planned to meet the specific needs of the population, and disease prevention and health promotion across all service areas. GWAHS must also manage the organisation's performance and risks.
   

4. Resources. GWAHS must allocate resources to best meet health need and effectively manage resources and assets for maximum health benefit.
   

5. Our people, culture, learning and innovation. GWAHS needs to match the workforce mix and skills with the health needs of our population, build management and leadership capacity and develop a culture consistent with the organisation's values, reflecting a commitment to mutual respect, life-long learning and a can-do attitude. We must also demonstrate, acknowledge and reward innovation, research and achievement in health care and attract and retain high quality staff.

The Corporate Plan can be viewed at: www.gwahs.nsw.gov.au

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