​The first face-to-face meeting of the Regional Health Ministerial Advisory Panel was held on 5 October 2022 in Sydney and was chaired by Richard Colbran, Chief Executive Officer of the NSW Rural Doctors Network.

The Hon Bronnie Taylor MLC, Minister for Regional Health attended the meeting and acknowledged the numerous challenges in providing health services in regional NSW. The Minister noted that there is a lot of excellent work being done, and said she was keen to hear members ideas from their work, life experience and their connections to people and communities in regional NSW. She expressed keen interest in hearing members' priorities and areas for improvement, as well as case studies of where the health system is working well.

Panel members outlined their priorities for regional health. There were common themes across these priorities including:

  • Health equity for all people living in regional NSW
  • A strong and capable regional workforce
  • Integration of systems between Federal Government and State Government, including with Public Health Networks and Non-Government Organisations
  • Partnerships with Aboriginal health services
  • Community consultation
  • Differentiation between service models for regional, rural and remote locations
  • Being bold

The Panel also provided input into the draft Regional Health Plan particularly around the priorities of strengthening the regional workforce and enabling better access to high quality and timely health services. NSW Health is aiming to publish the new Regional Health Plan for 2022-2032 by the end of 2022.

Workforce is a key priority of the group and Panel members were interested to hear about the current funded workforce initiatives which were presented to them by the Ministry of Health.

 

Current as at: Thursday 20 October 2022
Contact page owner: Regional Health Division