Consumers
Patient and Community Partnership
Hunter New England Health is committed to ensuring genuine patient and community partnership in healthcare decisions, in planning our services, designing care and monitoring and evaluating our services. We value the contributions patients, their carers and families, and our communities make in improving the quality and safety of our services.
Putting our patients at the centre of what we do, delivering safe and quality care, doing it consistently and with respect is what we strive for at Hunter New England Health. Increasingly we are working with our patients, their carers and families, and with our communities to help achieve this.
Framework for Partnering with Consumers
Hunter New England Health's Framework for Partnering with Consumers, provides a conceptual framework and outlines HNE Health's approach to partnering with patients, their families and our communities more broadly.
The framework aims to foster greater awareness and understanding of patient/carer and community partnership and provides guidance and support for staff to partner effectively with patients and community members.
Committees
The organisation is currently supported by a range of committees with clinical and community representatives.
These groups include Local Health Committees which are an important link between health services and the communities they serve.
Hunter New England Health also involves consumers, carers and the wider community at a ward, facility and service level.
Key stakeholders are invited to participate in the planning of new facilities and we use a range of methods to involve consumers and the community in reviews of health services.
Community Partnership Forums
Forums are held annually with our Local Health Committees, Health Service Managers, members of the Executive Leadership Team, and key partners including the local Primary Health Network.
The aim of these forums is to explore ways to improve engagement at a local community level.
The forums have a strong focus on:
- National and state health reform
- Building better working relationships between local health committees and health services
- Developing new tools and resources to support local health committees
- Partnering with HNE Health on key health initiatives