Chief Executive's Foreword
Download full report: Annual Report 2010 - 2011
In my first year back in the Territory I am reminded of the unique characteristics of the Northern Territory and the opportunities and challenges this brings. Our challenges include the Territory's geographically dispersed population where 44% of Territorians live in areas classified as remote or very remote. To add to this, over 30% of Territorians are Aboriginal with a higher burden of disease than the non-Aboriginal population. This means service providers confront a complex range of issues when providing health services and supporting the wellbeing of our population.
To this end, I bring to the Territory my commitment to ensure that the Department continues to work hard on the development and provision of health and community based services right across the Territory. This report provides many examples of the innovation and achievement within our services, reflecting the very diverse and talented people within the Department of Health, and their capacity to harness the power of teamwork and partnering.
I am keen to maintain and enhance our focus on quality and safety, consumer and community engagement and Aboriginal employment strategies. This focus is reflected in the new sections within this report providing information on the NT health context, health outcomes, safety and quality indicators and a new section on partner and consumer engagement. It is also reflected in the increased emphasis on Aboriginal employment within the chapter on Our People.
Some key changes began to take effect in the health sector across the nation and in the Northern Territory in 2010-11 as a result of the national health reforms initiated by the Council of Australian Governments and finalised in early August 2011. The key objectives of the National Health Reform Agreement are to improve health outcomes and provide long term sustainability for the Australian health care system.
As a result, on 14 December 2010, following an extensive public consultation process, the Northern Territory Government announced that two Hospital Networks will be established here. One, comprising Royal Darwin, Katherine and Gove District Hospitals, will cover the Top End; the other, comprising Tennant Creek and Alice Springs Hospitals, will service Central Australia. The Hospital Networks will be fully operational by July 2012.
Community representation and input into health service direction and delivery will also be strengthened in the Territory through the implementation of two Governing Councils for the hospital networks. The Governing Councils will lead community engagement and will be actively involved in the strategic direction of the hospital networks. These changes are critical to ensure greater local leadership, both by the community and clinicians, in how services are provided and developed in the networks. In the future, as a result of National Health Reforms, there will be far more information made publicly available to our consumers and stakeholders about how our system is performing, not only within the Territory, but compared to other public hospitals and health systems across the nation. A particular focus of this reporting will be safety and quality, with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality becoming a permanent feature of the Australian healthcare system and leading the way in terms of national strategy and standard setting.
The Health Reform Agenda presents both a great opportunity and challenge for the Northern Territory health system to improve the way we meet the needs of our community. Enormous trust is placed in our hands every day by the individuals, families and communities we serve.
We must continue to build on and honour the trust of our consumers and communities, and commit to doing all we can to manage and develop the safety and quality of our services. There is no higher priority for me than the safety and quality of our system and I am committed to taking the next steps to further enhance our safety and quality performance, building on the very good work of the past.
However, we cannot reform and develop our health system on our own. In the Northern Territory, as is the case in other parts of Australia, our system is one that encompasses and relies on many government and non-government service partners working together to provide the best health and community based services we can, and to ensure that we keep consumers' health and wellbeing at the centre of our decision making and our behaviour. I am committed to strengthening our partner and stakeholder engagement and this will be a focus for our Department for the next financial year.
Optimising our services requires a workforce to match the needs of both the workplace and clients. This requires innovation and reform in practice and service delivery models, with a clear focus on identified community needs, particularly cultural security awareness and competence. It entails challenging current models and ways of thinking, as well as promoting alternative workforce designs. The plans we have for creating a rural generalist medical practitioner training course in 2012 are an example of this approach.
Special mention should be made of our many Aboriginal employees who now make up nine per cent of our total workforce. We will continue to work hard to develop and grow this vital part of our workforce in order to maximise service quality and access to the high proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consumers in the Territory and to provide meaningful and fulfilling career opportunities for Aboriginal people.
The Department also consumes significant resources in delivering its services and we are conscious of the need for delivering value, being efficient in what we do, and being financially accountable to government and the public. The Department has sound corporate governance systems and will continue to strengthen these systems. In 2010-11, the Department received approvals for additional capital resources for infrastructure upgrade and development - including many remote clinics, a Palmerston Hospital and multiple Emergency Department and patient accommodation initiatives across the Territory. Our total capital program now exceeds $380 million and we are developing our governance and delivery systems to ensure we deliver on these commitments in a timely and well planned way.
The year ahead will bring with it many challenges, particularly with the roll out of the National Health Reform Agenda and the development of the Hospital Networks and their Governing Councils. As usual the challenges also bring great opportunities for the 5000-plus staff members who work for the Northern Territory Department of Health. I have complete confidence that we are up to the task and are well placed to meet our responsibilities, building on and honouring the community's well-founded faith in our skills, professionalism and compassion.
There is no doubt that the National Reform Agenda offers an opportunity to evolve the Northern Territory health system to develop and further meet the needs of Territorians and will require the Department to consider strategies to maximise the sustainability of our health system. This will require locally driven change. However, the one thing that will not change is the high level of care we provide to the Territory community and our commitment to ongoing improvement.
On behalf of the Executive team I wish to thank all staff, our service partners and all those who have served on the various Advisory Councils, Hospital Management Boards and the Committees who have provided valuable community and stakeholder input and assisted us in providing and improving services to our community. I would also like to extend my appreciation to the many community volunteers who have supported our hospitals and other facilities and bodies in the past year.
I look forward to working with our staff, volunteers and partners in 2011-12 to ensure that our health system continues to deliver and develop quality services to the many communities that we serve.
Jeff Moffet
Chief Executive
30 September 2011
