Benn Grandidge: This project is transformational 'cause I don't think we'll ever be able to go back to pre-COVID.
We've instilled a new way of working across the state and new expectations from our community.
The foundation that we've built here will live on beyond COVID and beyond this pandemic.
Should a pandemic come our way again, we're going to be prepared. We know what to do next time.
Blythe Aylward: During the COVID outbreak, New South Wales Government never ran out of personal protective equipment to keep the community safe.
Meegan Mishalow: Everything that we do in health is important, but the pandemic was obviously something that we had never seen before.
Being able to be a part of that, being a success, I think that's what makes it important.
Blythe Aylward: As a finalist, I feel great.
We are really surprised, just kind of out of the blue and a little nervous, a little excited.
And I guess, I say excited and nervous 'cause it's my job, it's what I'm supposed to do, but I'm really excited to be recognised.
Zoe Gulliver: The Quick Access Response Team, or QuART as we are known, is an interdisciplinary allied health team that supports the early discharge or admission prevention of our vulnerable patients who have presented to hospital and need some allied health input to return home safely.
Daina Wilson: We work as a very collaborative team.
So we're only a small team across both Shoalhaven and Wollongong.
We collaborate by empowering each other to upskill across different areas.
We are open with each other and with our patients and we're also very respectful of our patients' privacy, dignity.
Kristi-Lee Muir: These patients would've otherwise been admitted to hospital, but we're able to provide a patient-centered care in the patient's home.
The patients love it. They want to be at home.
They want to be able to be cared for in their home and receive the treatment in the home.
Caitlin Reid: I think this project is life changing for health in the sense that it demonstrates that allied health doesn't need to be delivered on a ward.
It can be delivered just as meaningfully, just as valuably, in the patient's own home.
Tim Bear: To be a finalist for the NSW Health Awards is quite an amazing achievement for our team.
To be recognised amongst these teams as well is quite an achievement for us.
Dr Rebecca Rockett: I think, at its core, this project was about collaboration.
So it was about taking a really innovative laboratory method and then pulling together different pieces of health data to think about new ways that we could control a kind of world-changing event as it happened.
Professor Vitali Sintchenko: Teams that delivered transformational power of pathogen genomics into COVID-19 control, allowing tracing of transmission events, rapid identification of variants of concern, and timely detection of drug resistance in this new variants that we've been dealing with.
Dr Alicia Arnott: I think we've pulled together as a team and we've done something that hasn't really been done in New South Wales before.
And we've done that to inform pandemic control and responses.
Dr Rebecca Rockett: I think, at its core, this project was about collaboration. So it was about taking a really innovative laboratory method and then pulling together different pieces of health data to think about new ways that we could control a kind of world-changing event, as it happened.
Professor Vitali Sintchenko: Teams which deliver transformational power of pathogen genomics into COVID-19 control, allowing tracing of transmission events, rapid identification of variants of concern, and timely detection of drug resistance in these new variants that we've been dealing with.
Dr Alicia Arnott: I think we'd be even more excited if we won. I think we've pulled together as a team and we've done something that hasn't really been done in NSW before, and we've done that to inform pandemic control and responses.
Sharnee Townsend: We are a very dynamic, enthusiastic, and very well committed team that work to close the gap around Aboriginal maternal child and family health outcomes on the Central Coast, on Darkinjung Land.
Melissa Stephens: I love what I do, because I think I have the opportunity to walk alongside women. And just to be a part of their journey and their story is a very big privilege.
Emily Hall: It's important for us to showcase the cultural birth plan to give our families and our women a safe connection when they go into birth.
Tracy Cutmore: Culture is important for the birthing experience, because they got to engage more, if they've got an Aboriginal Health Worker walking beside them.
Voiceover: I'm absolutely thrilled to be a finalist for the NSW Health Awards.
Jainarri Lake: I think it feels amazing. I think it's really an honour to be a part of it, to be here, be alongside the rest of the team, and really share this experience is amazing.
Jennifer Mozina: The project was the brain child of our Aboriginal health team who decided that after the 2020 Black Summer fires, that they wanted to involve community in healing from the bush fires in many ways.
Ivan Goolagong: I think we've worked really hard after the bush fires, just bringing the community back together. And we are representing the Angajanj Project which we done a calendar for the bushfire recovery which is a menu, traditional foods off the land and the regrowth of the mother land, I suppose.
Erin Evans: There's lots of country on the Yuin Nation that burnt. When we are looking about people recovering and moving to a place where they feel more peace with themselves, country is a big part of that recovery journey.
Martine Mathieson: I feel really proud that I've been able to engage in a project like this. And I feel very privileged and honoured that I've been able to share some of the cultural knowledge with people.
Jamille Torrefranca: Stay'n In and Stay'n Deadly project is all about reducing the incomplete treatment rates in the emergency department in St Vincent's Hospital.
This project was made to be able to help the Aboriginal community to have better health outcomes.
Professor Paul Preisz: The biggest measure of success we have here is that we've changed the culture of this place.
I think I could sum this up best by one of our trainees. One of them put it very nicely when he said, "Working in this area hasn't just made me a better doctor, it's made me a better person".
Kieran Costigan: I feel really humbled to be part of such a forward-thinking kind of initiative. Being nominated I think is a real credit to our team and the team that set up the program as well. I'm fortunate enough to have been working off foundations of an amazing team that set up the flexi-clinic and I've been passed the baton.
Jamille Torrefranca: Stay'n In and Stay'n Deadly project is all about reducing the incomplete treatment rates in the emergency department in St Vincent's Hospital. This project was made to be able to help the Aboriginal community to have better health outcomes.
Professor Paul Preisz: The biggest measure of success we have here is that we've changed the culture of this place. I think I could sum this up best by one of our trainees. One of them put it very nicely when he said, "Working in this area hasn't just made me a better doctor, it's made me a better person."
Kieran Costigan: I feel really humbled to be part of such a forward-thinking kind of initiative. As a winner, I think it's nice to be acknowledged for that. In a small way, making a difference for Aboriginal people and I think people see that as a positive change and to win it is just, it's... Yeah, it's overwhelming and humbling.
Dr Alyson Hickey: The three most important things that we've achieved in this project has been better outcomes for our consumers, an improved therapeutic environment for our staff to work in, as well as for the consumers, and we also achieved a reduction in seclusion and restraint.
Paul Jones Banda: We should celebrate this project because we initiated the project and the outcomes are positive. Our consumers are happy and the staff is happy too and this has improved outcomes for our clients.
Dr Alyson Hickey: As a finalist, I feel very proud that our team that has worked really hard over the last four years has been able to put together this project and come out with the great outcomes that we have in reducing seclusion and restraint.
Samantha Whitney: Space Camp addresses the diverse needs across our LHD in the Nepean Blue Mountains. Some of those might include our neuroscience, sensory processing, developmental frameworks, emotion coaching, and trauma-informed practises that we know embed all of the practises that need to be addressed in these populations.
Amanda Horton-Hallett: Space Camp delivers foundational concepts that everybody who interacts with them comes to understand themselves and their relationships with others in a new way. And this self-understanding is so important to people being able to develop new ways to approach the world. We are so thrilled to be finalists. For us, it means that early intervention is really being acknowledged, and there is such amazing, complex clinical work being done in that space.
Dr Michael Millard: This Way Up has been proud to be able to provide evidence based digital mental health care that's accessible and available anytime and anywhere. So it hasn't mattered whether you've been in Dubbo or Darlinghurst. We've grown a community of tens of thousands of clinicians across New South Wales who are integrating This Way Up into their routine care.
And finally, we've been proud of over 50,000 people in New South Wales who have used This Way Up to help them manage the distress, and uncertainty, and change over the last two years, because of the pandemic.
As a team, we're just overjoyed to be considered for this prestigious award.
Amanda Horton-Hallett: Space Camp delivers foundational concepts that everybody who interacts with them comes to understand themselves and their relationships with others in a new way. And this self-understanding is so important to people being able to develop new ways to approach the world.
We are blown away to be winning this award. Mental health for young children has often been minimised, but what we see are increasingly complex and diverse issues and our clinicians are doing very complex and amazing work.
Anna O'Hare: HIRAID is an assessment tool that nurses use to ensure that they've assessed a patient in the emergency department in a safe manner and it enables them to escalate any concerns or issues that they might have with a patient.
Jacquie Barrass: So this is an original assessment framework. It's the first ever developed for emergency departments and it was developed by emergency nurses for emergency nurses.
And it's the uptake is now being shown across the state as a first step and hopefully being recognised internationally.
Professor Kate Curtis: So as a finalist for this award, we're just stoked really because it's just a culmination of so many people's hard work in building these sustainable interventions that was developed by emergency nurses for emergency nurses.
Lindsay Savage: MORACS is the Management of Rural ACS. It's a service designed to assist rural clinicians in the treatment of patients with acute coronary syndrome.
Christopher Burman: The MORACS system is the only one in the state that allows a clinician to remotely view an ECG in real time.
Fiona Dee: Our MORACS project helped our rural areas by providing real-time decision support to ensure that we had timely diagnosis of ST-elevation myocardial infarction, and initiation of treatment for that.
Thomas Rabbit: I like helping people. And whether it's direct patient contact or part of this MORACS team, we should celebrate this achievement, because it actually helps people, saves lives.
Professor Andrew Boyle: We're seeing improved diagnosis, we're seeing improved treatment rates and we're seeing less deaths in heart attacks in rural centres.
Olivia Watson: I feel very humbled to be a finalist.
I've never had anything like this happen to me before, and it's just an absolute honour to be a finalist. Lovely.
Jean-Frederic Levesque: The Critical Intelligence Unit brings together rapid evidence, great data, mobilisation of expertise, and is really a critical friend that both challenges and support decision making in times of uncertainty, which are provided by the pandemic.
Bringing intelligence in very short timeframes for very difficult questions really requires to bring all of the expertise together, to work together at solving those issues and collaboration is right at the centre of all this.
The evidence internationally was constantly changing. So really, it was about constantly having to adjust the various phases of the pandemic were always throwing at us new challenges and to see how you had to evolve all the time.
It makes us extremely proud to be a finalist in the NSW Health Awards and really get the feeling that we've contributed to something important, something that really made a difference in the difficult times that were the pandemic.
Anna O'Hare: HIRAID is an assessment tool that nurses use to ensure that they've assessed a patient in the emergency department in a safe manner. And it enables them to escalate any concerns or issues that they might have with a patient.
Jacquie Barrass: So this is an original assessment framework. It's the first ever developed for emergency departments, and it was developed by emergency nurses for emergency nurses. And the uptake is now being shown across the state as a first step, and will hopefully be recognised internationally.
Professor Kate Curtis: As the winners of this award, look, it's hard to express, because it really belongs to the whole department. It belongs to every single emergency nurse in the health district that has changed their practise, that has used this in their day-to-day work in the hectic ED environment, and they've applied this in a really hard time and they've improved patient outcomes.
Cassandra Walton: SHEOC has provided consistency, and leadership, and support to the districts and to the community around healthcare in a pandemic.
Jennifer Wilson: Showing the world how dedicated health staff can really be to come together and achieve something incredible.
Joanne Edwards: Keeping the communities safe as we responded to the pandemic, ensuring that our response was strong, ensuring we're able to adapt as the response changed according to where we're up to in the pandemic.
Sally Howard: You know, something to be so proud of, making such a difference and such a change.
Greg Price: At its peak, we tested more than 200,000 people in the one day.
There was a week during the Delta outbreak where we tested more than a million people in a week.
Joanne Edwards: We've been strong, we've been resilient, we've been adaptive and we've been agile.
As a finalist for the NSW Health Awards, I feel really excited for the work that we've achieved over the last couple of years in our response to the pandemic.
It would be a great time for us to celebrate as we draw to a bit of a close with the work that we've been doing.
Professor Dominic Dwyer: We're responsible for providing testing for SARS-CoV-2, which is the virus, of course, that causes COVID-19, not just the testing to say whether people are infected or not but some of the really early developmental work in growing the virus, doing the genetic sequencing of the virus, all of these sorts of things that are needed for public health interventions.
This has been the biggest emergency in infectious diseases for the last 100 years.
We're talking about millions and millions of infections around the world, seven or so million deaths around the world.
This is really, really important.
It's nice to be celebrated. It really is a recognition for what I'd regard as the unsung heroes here.
A lot of people doing a lot of work, a lot of hours, a lot of extra work, really, to benefit the health of people in New South Wales.
So it's not about doing it for themselves; it's about doing it for other people, and that's really an important mark in pathology.
Gary Rubie: What we were trying to do is make sure that the New South Wales citizens were safe. That was the target of the vaccination program.
Building out a system that could enable appointments to be made by the citizens, that's really important as well.
Probably the most important one is getting the vaccination numbers through to 70 and 80 and now 90% and above, which really has enabled the state to open up for the restrictions to be pulled back.
So just being part of that, to be able to get people back to their new normal, I think, is probably the key highlight from a program perspective.
Obviously, the team would be absolutely proud of being selected as a finalist.
It was just such an amazing program of work that we put together, so for us to be selected as a finalist would be a great level of recognition for the whole team.
Sarah Etter: The ACE project is the true epitome of how we all should approach research and developing tools and strategies to work with the most vulnerable people in the most successful and beneficial way.
Sarah Adams: When we detected people with a severed impairment, we were able to look at referring them for NDIS or further support in the community, which is so important for people that are really struggling.
Pooria Sarrami: This research provide evidence and a statistical support that this intervention is effective and people get improved as a result of completing this intervention.
Skype Russell: The findings that we've had from the Alcohol and Drug Cognitive Enhancement project really has endless possibilities for the New South Wales Health system.
Antoinette Sedwell: As a finalist, I feel so proud, so proud of all the people that were involved.
I'm very proud that Drug and Alcohol has this opportunity to showcase the creative and innovative work that we do.
Suzanne Bilsborough: The Clinical Excellence Commission states there's no other single cause of injury that costs New South Wales health system more than falls.
As the population ages, it's anticipated that without intervention, falls will continue to climb and may cost as much as 1.4 billion by 2051.
Simply by reducing falls, this will provide significant savings within health.
Megan Latham: This program has reduced the falls risk in our community by up to 30%.
Also found that it has helped with our mental and social interaction and wellbeing of our community and it's also been a very cost-effective program for us to run.
Susan Mack: We're a rural team, so a small team, and we've made a big difference in our community through reducing falls and improving our strength and balance by at least 30% in all of our participants.
Suzanne Bilsborough : As a finalist, our team is really proud to know that we've achieved such good things with a small team and that that's been recognised by the NSW Health Awards.
Ferna Vagg: The Up and Running Men's Diabetes Prevention Program was a real collaborative program.
It was delivered in a small country town with a group of health professionals that work for different health agencies. This program really embodies collaborative healthcare. So I think that's a real achievement in a small country town.
If you remember one thing about the Men's Up and Running Diabetes Prevention Program, it would be the saying nothing about me without me.
And the gist of that for our program was that we worked with our local community to have content that was really relevant to the target audience and that meant that we got really meaningful outcomes for our participants.
As a finalist, I feel proud.
Being a finalist recognises the success of the Up and Running program and the achievements that our participants were able to achieve.
And being a finalist recognises the team that helped develop this program and how we collaborated to deliver a successful program.
Cassandra Walton: SHEOC has provided consistency and leadership and support to the districts and to the community around healthcare in a pandemic.
Joanne Edwards: Keeping the community safe as we responded to the pandemic, ensuring that our response was strong, ensuring we were able to adapt as the response changed according to where we're up to in the pandemic.
Greg Price: At its peak, we tested more than 200,000 people in the one day. There was a week during the Delta outbreak where we tested more than a million people in a week.
Joanne Edwards: As a winner for the NSW Health Awards, I think I'd be really excited, excited for our team to celebrate the work that we've done over the last couple of years.
Sally Howard: I feel absolutely honoured and amazed that we've won this award.
Sarah Adams: When we detected people with a severe impairment, we were able to look at referring them for NDIS or further support in the community, which is so important for people that are really struggling.
Pooria Sarrami: This research provides evidence and a statistical support that this intervention is effective and people get improved as a result of completing this intervention.
Skye Russell: The findings that we've had from the Alcohol and Drug Cognitive Enhancement project really has endless possibilities for the NSW health system. As a winner, I just feel so, so humbled, so grateful, so proud, and I stand here representing the 520 clients that took part in this piece of work.
Claudia Stevenson: The important part about midwifery is keeping women close to home to be culturally appropriate, by keeping women that are Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander on country.
Hannah Bird: It reduces the unnecessary transfers away from the women's home environment and local community and local health services.
Amanda Gear: When we started the project, we were imagining that we would be getting savings of women being transferred within 12 months.
However, within the first four months of the project, we found that 79% of the women who were going to be transferred were able to be cared for locally.
It is just an incredible honour to be able to provide this care to women. We're grateful for all the people that were involved.
Tim Eckersley: If you remember one thing about NSW Health Pathology's digital health solutions, it is that we can connect anything anywhere, providing better healthcare to patients with timely and quality information for our clinicians.
Ability to respond rapidly in challenging times like the Delta and Omicron outbreaks. In this case, we were able to deliver over half a million pathology results in a fully connected capability in mobile and rural settings.
And finally, we're opening up a whole range of new opportunities for managing chronic conditions outside of hospitals and that's really exciting.
We've quietly worked away on a shoestring budget and with a truckload of passion to achieve the unachievable and completely open up new affordable ways to provide digital healthcare to the people of New South Wales.
Nicole Tolhurst: We're an amazing team, but we've got lots of expertise.
We impact our New South Wales health system by all the resources and fact sheets and guidelines that we deliver to you to make sure that you, as a healthcare worker, patients and the community are safe.
Dr Kate Clezy: What people will remember is that yeah, the pandemic has threatened the future of healthcare, and what the CEC does is helping to protect the future by creating tools and guidance, working with all of the other agencies to protect that.
Dr Susan Jain: Infection prevention and control is the backbone of healthcare. And we have done that beautifully, making sure that our healthcare workers were safe, and our stats definitely shows that we have done it really well.
Stephanie Wilcox: I think the team deserves to be recognised for this award because of all the hard work and commitment they've put in throughout the pandemic.
Kathy Dempsey: It's an exciting opportunity to really showcase what we've done.
And I really think, as a team, we've worked collaboratively well and truly above and beyond expectations.
Claudia Stevenson: The important part about midwifery is keeping women close to home, to be culturally appropriate by keeping women that are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander on country.
Hannah Bird: It reduces the unnecessary transfer away from the women's home environment and local community and local health services.
We are so proud and humbled to receive this award. It is just an incredible honour to be able to provide this care to women.
We're grateful for all the people that were involved. Amazing. Who would've thought?
Ryan Gallagher: The team that I work with is the John Hunter Physio Department.
I lead most of our model of care re-designs across our department. So looking for opportunities to improve patient care and re-design how we work day-to-day to help patients improve and patient outcomes.
Catherine Groves: It's important to showcase the work that we're doing as a team, because it inspires others and it shows others that they can do this as well.
And it empowers the people in our team to think differently and to utilise our resources better to meet the needs of our patient.
Lauren Thomas: One of the most important things that our work has achieved for the NSW community is by re-designing models of care, to reduce waiting lists for outpatients.
What this means for patients is that they're getting the right care at the right time, at the right place.
Damien Smith: I'm surrounded by a team of physiotherapists and support staff that are
highly skilled, professional, and collaborative that drive innovation support and excellence in our department.
I'm very surprised to be a finalist in NSW Health Awards, but I feel very honoured.
Stuart Emslie: I think NSW Health believes in innovation, NSW Health believes in its people, and SEED is a wonderful, dynamic, innovative program that's all about its people.
If there's an opportunity to celebrate SEED, anyone that's interested in the wellbeing of NSW Health staff and their families and the communities that they serve will be wanting to be part of this.
Padmini Pai: At a very micro level, it starts with us taking care of each other as frontline workers.
At an organisation level, it is about having pride and connection to what we do.
And at a state level, it's fantastic for us that we've got elevating the human experience.
We can align all that we do to one common goal of putting staff wellbeing at the centre of everything that we do.
As a finalist, I am extremely humbled that our passion to purpose has been recognised and I am incredibly happy that I could be putting my district, Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District, on the map of NSW Health.
Andrew Pollock: I'm Andrew Pollock and I'm the Applications Manager for all things Oracle or commonly known as Stafflink.
It automates the processes for JMOs and frees up their time for more clinical work and increases the transparency and reporting of the process to allow better management of JMO fatigue and workloads.
I think it's proven that human-centered design and new technology platforms can provide substantially better outcomes for a project or for the organisation and that we have the people in our organisation who can deliver on this now.
I think it's great recognition for the UROC project team to even be a finalist in this.
I think it reaffirms what they've been going through in the last couple years, the different teams, and the embracing of new technology and new ways of delivering projects.
Ryan Gallagher: The team that I work with is the John Hunter physio department. I lead most of our model of care redesigns across our department. So looking for opportunities to improve patient care and redesign how we work day to day to help patients, improve patient outcomes.
Catherine Groves: It's important to showcase the work that we're doing as a team because it inspires others and it show others that they can do this as well, and it empowers the people in our team to think differently and to utilise our resources better to meet the needs of our patient.
Lauren Thomas: One of the most important things that our work has achieved for the NSW community is by redesigning models of care to reduce waiting lists for outpatients. What this means for patients is that they're getting the right care at the right time at the right place.
Damien Smith: I'm surrounded by a team of physiotherapists and support staff that are highly skilled, professional, and collaborative, that drive innovation support and excellence in our department. Absolutely honoured to be a winner of the NSW Health Awards. Still can't believe it. It's just a great honour for the team.
Dr Jonathan De Lima: I'm part of the Quiet Pathway team or the special kids team.
It's a perioperative preparation programme for kids with severe anxiety or autism or behavioural or intellectual disabilities.
Dr Natalie Ong: The Quiet Pathway allows safe, timely, and efficient delivery of healthcare services to children with intellectual disability.
Daniel Le Messurier: We're not just here to look after children, we're here to look after whole families and to make sure their whole journey through the healthcare system is better every time.
Angelique Doyle: I think it is such an important project, because it's individualised care for patients.
Dr Winey Wan: And not only are we helping the patient themselves, but I feel that it makes a big difference to the families.
And it does actually offer a glimmer of hope sometimes.
A/Professor Richard Widmer: We're just very pleased to be part of what they've done, and several people have organised this, and it's a great credit they've done it, because it's such a good service for people who would otherwise never get it.
Angela Reed: The Virtually Enhanced Community Care program offers people with chronic illnesses ability to monitor themselves at home with equipment that we provide them.
And the aim of the program is to educate and help them to learn more about their chronic illness.
Liz Lucas: It's new, it's innovative, and I guess it's breaking a lot of the barriers that were previously experienced by people.
It's using new technology and it's really the sign of future healthcare.
Dina Baytieh: Virtual care I think is certainly the way of the future.
It is about reducing in-patient admission and also trying to provide care within the home at a really high level.
Kristi-Lee Muir: It reflects the core values because it's very collaborative. We're working with the patient, their carers, as well as their GPs.
Pippa Rendel: This is a fantastic team doing amazing work to keep people well in the community.
Ashley Taylor: It's really exciting to be a finalist in the NSW Health Awards.
I'm really proud of our team.
Belinda Green: The virtual paediatric feeding clinic demonstrated that it was acceptable by clients and clinicians and that it was a feasible program.
It was also convenient for many of our participants with over 30,000 kilometres saved in travel.
In addition, the virtual paediatric feeding clinic demonstrated really positive outcomes, clinical outcomes.
Alison Wu: As a finalist, we're really thrilled to be able to celebrate our
project with this nomination.
We really feel honoured that our project has been accepted and that we're able to contribute to the evidence base.
We're really proud that we've been able to contribute to the positive outcomes for families who are experiencing challenging meal times with their children.
Dr Jonathan De Lima: I'm part of the Quiet Pathway team or the special kids team. It's a perioperative preparation program for kids with severe anxiety or autism or behavioural or intellectual disabilities.
Daniel Le Messurier: We're not just here to look after children. We're here to look after whole families and to make sure their whole journey through the healthcare system is better every time.
Angelique Doyle: I think it is such an important project because it's individualised care for patients.
Dr Winey Wan: And not only are we helping the patient themselves, but I feel that it makes a big difference to the families and it does actually offer a glimmer of hope sometimes.
A/Professor Richard Widmer: We'd be very pleased for my colleagues who've set this up. It would be great acknowledgement of what they've done, and saw an absolute niche and it was very valuable and they've worked it out and, with help from everybody, they put it in place and it works very well.
