Annual Report 2016-17
Board Chair Report - Dr Alison Edwards
It is pleasing to look back after two years of functioning as Country SA PHN and recognise the progress made to date. We are on to our third Health Minister and second parliament but appear to be settling in to the Australian health landscape with words of support from both sides of politics and are pleased to have received notification of funding extension for a further two years through to 2020.
In our second year we have continued to roll out commissioned services in a range of locations and program areas including mental health, alcohol and other
drugs, and smaller population rural health. While our initial remit was to continue services in place at the time, we have been able to move towards ensuring programs meet our needs assessment and are providing the best fit of services
for an area’s needs. We have also embarked on a joint project with SA Health and Adelaide PHN establishing locally relevant Health Pathways as an online resource.
Our cycle of needs-assessment, commissioning, contract management and service review is developing robustness and transparency with the commissioning committee separately providing oversight to the process.
Our community advisory committees range in maturity and focus with some who have been somewhat dormant becoming reinvigorated, and new bodies coming online from our southern region in the near future.