St John of God Health Care (SJGHC) Group Chief Executive Officer, Dr Michael Stanford, has last week said the impact of the recent opening of St John of God Midland Public Hospital would benefit the communities served as the hospital would be able to reach more people where there are identified community needs.
Dr Stanford was also speaking in light of the transfer of Hawkesbury District Health Service in New South Wales to the group last month, noting the two events will be transformational for the organisation in years to come.
“The question should not be about whether health care should be delivered by the public or private sector but who is able to best deliver the service where and when it is needed,” Dr Stanford said.
“Just as the pioneering Sisters of St John of God worked with the State in 1895 to respond to a societal need when the gold rush brought on typhoid outbreaks, we continue their mission to deliver compassionate care where it is needed.
“In Midland, we will deliver two new hospitals, including a public hospital in partnership with the Western Australian Government, with increased capacity and expanded services such as emergency, surgical, medical and maternity and new ones like chemotherapy.
“As our heritage will attest, we also have a proud tradition of delivering care to rural and regional Australia, with seven St John of God hospitals in regional Australia.
St John of God Midland Public and Private Hospitals will service the rural Mid-West as well as its metropolitan catchment area.
Dr Stanford said that, in putting forward SJGHC’s bid to operate the public private partnership in Midland, consideration was given to the group’s longstanding organisational priority to help close the gap in Aboriginal health in Australia.
“The increased service offering at Midland in a community with a significant Indigenous population will support this priority and we’ve also committed to employ and train more Indigenous Australians at all our hospitals.”
For the Hawkesbury region and the northwest corridor of Sydney, SJGHC brings the benefits of being a large-scale, sustainable and high-quality operator to the public private partnership with the Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District, part of NSW Health.
The agreement to run the public health service with the state in New South Wales has seven years to run during which time SJGHC will look to invest further in the health services and work with the New South Wales Government to meet the needs of the region’s growing population.
Dr Stanford said that working in a more integrated system of care like that provided by the public sector will have spin-off benefits for the way SJGHC’s private hospitals engage with their communities and public hospital colleagues.
“In public health, you are uniquely accountable to the community, to taxpayers. The engagement and capability of the Hawkesbury District Health Service Community Board of Advice is an example of community engagement from which the broader SJGHC will learn.
Consumer involvement and participation in health care delivers quality health outcomes,” Dr Stanford said.
“A greater public health profile will increase our capacity as a provider of medical education which will assist in our long-term goal in Western Australia of becoming a primary allocation centre in our own right.
“Ultimately, we want to be more aware and sophisticated in working with government so that, when opportunities for partnership present, we are able to help shoulder the responsibility to deliver quality health outcomes when and where they are needed.”
The addition of the three hospitals, Hawkesbury District Health Service and St John of God Midland Public and Private Hospitals, takes the health care group’s total number of facilities to 23 in Australia and New Zealand with more than 3,000 beds.