3 March 2008

Sites across the McIntyre cluster have received positive verbal feedback, as well as a number of recommendations, following a recent accreditation review by the Australian Council of Healthcare Standards (ACHS).

Hunter New England Health’s Director of Primary and Community Networks Scott McLachlan said all health facilities within the state are accredited under the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards.

"Accreditation is a very comprehensive process which indicates areas where we are strong performers and achieving good results, but also enables us to focus our attention on areas to enhance better performance," Mr McLachlan said.

The health services within the McIntyre cluster must demonstrate compliance with any recommendations issued following the accreditation process, in order to receive official reaccreditation.

"None of the recommendations relate to the care provided by clinicians at any of the hospitals with the McIntyre Cluster. In fact, our clinical care has been praised by the ACHS," Mr McLachlan said.

"The sort of things we are now working on include some fire and security issues, processes around better documentation of training and evaluation," he said.

Mr McLachlan said the cluster would receive formal notification regarding these recommendations in the coming weeks.

"We need to regard these recommendations as on opportunity to improve our documentation, fire safety and security," he said.

Accreditation with the ACHS demonstrates a health service’s compliance with standards expected of each and every health facility across NSW.

"These standards are extremely rigorous and we will be working to make sure these recommendations are acted upon as quickly as possible," Mr McLachlan said.

He stressed, however, that these recommendations need to be taken in perspective.

"Not meeting these recommendations at this time does not impact on the delivery of clinical care, our funding, or our commitment to providing high quality health care at all times.

"We remain highly confident that the services provided at each of our health facilities within the McIntyre cluster, including Inverell, Bingara, Tingha and Warialda, are of a very high standard, and I am proud of the staff delivering those services," Mr McLachlan said.

Beautification work to the grounds at Inverell Hospital will also be undertaken in the coming months, following constructive feedback from the local community regarding improvements to the hospital environment.

Contact: Kay Cope

Phone: 6776 9817