Message from the Board Chair
Once again we have made some hugely significant achievements across wide-ranging areas despite the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The district, hospital executive teams and senior clinicians have shown their professionalism and dedication under the terrific leadership of former chief executive Deb Willcox. We welcomed Lee Gregory as the Interim Chief Executive and under his stewardship, we have continued the wonderful progress achieved. In a time of ongoing turbulence and challenges, solidifying and developing relationships with key partners has been crucial, and this has been successfully achieved. We have enhanced our university partnerships and are continuing to progress the St Leonards Health, Research and Education Precinct Plan, which outlines our vision to further develop public and private health services on the St Leonards campus as well as establishing a vibrant research and innovation health precinct with multiple university and industry partners. The St Leonards Health Precinct Plan Project has been formally recognised as a health precinct in the NSW Health – Health Precinct Strategy and has been listed as a major innovation precinct within the NSW Health – Research and Innovation Industry Prospectus. We have continued to collaborate with Sydney North Health Network (SNHN) in important areas of winter activity initiatives and virtual care. We have also had another successful joint annual Board meeting with the SNHN Board. We have continued to enhance our relationships with neighbouring private hospitals and residential aged care facilities. This includes signing new Service Level Agreements with Royal Rehab and HammondCare. We have enhanced the work of the Board committees, including working towards major positive outcomes for the Junior Medical Officer (JMO) Committee, and with the Consumer Committee hosting the district’s 2022 Consumer Forum. The Board will be creating a new Research and Innovation and Technology Committee in 2023. I very much enjoyed attending NSLHD Consumer Forum this year. Hearing from our consumers, understanding their needs and factoring them into our strategic thinking is critical. Promoting diversity, inclusion and belonging remains a significant focus area for the Board and there has been extensive progress in this area.
This has included the launch of the Advancing Women in Medical Leadership Working Group, which is focusing on reducing barriers to advancing women doctors in leadership positions and providing equitable access to leadership training programs across the district. We have further expanded our Speaking Up for Safety strategy, now providing training for more than 4500 employees, which builds a high performance culture of safety and reliability. The district’s ongoing and enduring commitment to planetary health, sustainability and being net zero by 2035 has been reinforced through various key initiatives throughout the year. We have established net zero leads to support staff to embed net zero carbon principles into the delivery of care. These staff include clinicians and will spend part of their work researching and educating on planetary health and finding ways we can reduce our carbon footprint. This year we established the NSLHD Board Honour Roll to recognise the exceptional and outstanding service by a person who has had strong involvement with the district over an extended period. The Board decided the first recipient should be former Chief Executive Deb Willcox in recognition of her exceptional and outstanding leadership of NSLHD over her term of service and particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Board is delighted to recognise and celebrate Deb’s service. During her time at NSLHD, Deb built strong, open, transparent and respectful relationships with staff at all levels and in all positions. She was and is a compassionate, hard-working leader and a high performing colleague with excellent communication and stakeholder engagement and management skills. She is a worthy first inductee to the NSLHD Honour Roll. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank NSLHD staff for their commitment and contribution to our community and provision of genuinely world-class care to our patients. You are all hugely valued and it has been truly inspiring to see your achievements. It promises to be an exciting year ahead with many great initiatives and projects already underway across our district.
Trevor Danos AM Board Chair, Northern Sydney Local Health District
NSLHD 2022 Year in Review
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