This article was provided by Australian Centre for VBHC Advisory Group member, George Leipnik.
George is the Director of Strategy and System Priorities at the NSW Ministry of Health, with his team leading the implementation of Future Health. A 10-year strategy for NSW Health, Future Health includes key objectives such as supporting the system to deliver better value care, and coordinating the state-wide collections of self-reported information from patients, carers, the community and staff.
Increasing growth and demand pressures, new technologies, and changing community needs and expectations require health systems to deliver care more efficiently in different ways, while maintaining safety, access, equity, and positive experiences and outcomes for patients, carers, the community and staff. NSW Health’s peak strategy, Future Health: Guiding the next decade of care in NSW 2022 – 2032, provides a roadmap for how we will address these issues and deliver services over the coming decades.
Successfully implementing these new and alternative models of care, technologies and ways of working to achieve NSW Health’s vision relies on acceptance by the community and clinicians and aligning expectations with broader priorities. Health systems need to ensure future health services and innovative models of care are informed, understood, trusted and embraced by the community and that there is a shared understanding about:
- why things are changing, including conversations about health needs data, quality and safety, efficiency and economic considerations
- what safe, high quality, and sustainable healthcare looks like and what matters most to patients
- how communities can expect care to be delivered into the future, noting traditional models of care delivery may not be the most effective or efficient response.
While significant achievements have been made in developing tools and resources to engage consumers and communities, such as All Of Us: A guide to engaging consumers, carers and communities across NSW Health and Elevating the Human Experience, NSW Health identified a need to strengthen how we support a shared community understanding across all levels of the organisation. This can help build trust in the systems and process that make evidence-based decisions about health service delivery in NSW.
In 2024, NSW Health connected with more than 300 staff, community members, partner organisations and other government departments to gain a deeper understanding of:
- stakeholders’ experiences when engaging with the community, workforce and partners and NSW Health
- barriers, enablers, challenges and opportunities to strengthen and improve engagement processes
- ways to work more collaboratively across the health system and provide more transparency around decision-making.
Four key themes emerged from the consultation feedback. These themes cover areas that can be strengthened to enable trust across all levels of the system, build relationships and create a shared understanding of health service design, planning and delivery:
- Consultation quality – Early planning, transparency, accountability, cultural sensitivity, and building relationships with trusted community members to ensure consultation are valued and impactful.
- Communication – Needs to be tailored, timely, accessible, appropriate and shared proactively through open dialogue with communities, staff, and partners.
- Supportive environments and resource allocation – Create engagement capable environments that are resourced appropriately through leadership, capability uplift, and clear requirements and guidance.
- System alignment and coordination – Improved coordination within NSW Health, across government and with partners to improve collaboration, reduce duplication, and prevent over-consultation.
Aligning community expectations with future healthcare priorities requires a partnership approach between the health system, community and partners. As health system leaders we have a responsibility to engage to understand and serve the needs of the community, complemented by proactive and transparent communication about available services, any changes, and what can be delivered reasonably and safely in different contexts. This requires a process of continually building trust in alternative models of care by demonstrating their effectiveness, efficiency and safety, while ensuring existing health services continue to be delivered sustainably.
NSW Health is now working on the ways to address these consultation findings.
If you would like to understand more about this work, please contact: MOH-ODS-Regional@health.nsw.gov.au
