Search Results for: health information

There are two ways you can have your complaint heard and responded to by the health service.

You may find these resources useful in your complaint efforts: 

1. The first is via the Practice Manager

Every private practice and clinic should have a practice manager who oversees all complaints and communications to and from the service. You can call your clinic or GP to ask for the name and email of the practice manager. You are then able to call to speak with the practice manager, or you can write and post or email your complaint, along with a request for a written response.

2. The second is via the Health and Disability Service Complaints Office (HaDSCO) and/or the Australian Health Practitioners Register of Australia (AHPRA)

https://www.hadsco.wa.gov.au/Make-a-Complaint

• HaDSCO is the overarching body for all health and disability service complaints in WA.
• They can negotiate to provide explanations, apologies, changes in policy, refunds, access to services, education for the medical professionals and conciliation.
• HaDSCO will also communicate with AHPRA if required, and they operate with services in general.
• Please include as much information as you have with the forms; you can write in a separate document and send that with the form if there is not enough room.
• Also include the communication you have had previously with the health service, as HaDSCO requires you to have already submitted a complaint to the service previously.
• HaDSCO offer the following options as outcomes they can work towards, however there is no guarantee that any of these will definitely occur.
  • Explanation
  • Access to service
  • Apology
  • Adequate service
  • Change in policy or procedure
  • Counselling/other support
  • Refund/waiver of fees
  • Disciplinary action
  • Conciliation
  • Training/education for service provider
  • The option for ‘other’ – in which you can write your own.

https://www.ahpra.gov.au/Notifications.aspx

• The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA is the overarching body for all health professionals in Australia).
• They handle registrations and concerns/notifications regarding specific health practitioners.
• AHPRA is not able to get an apology or recognition from the medical professional, but they are able to investigate and put conditions on a professional’s practice, suspend or terminate their registration, and implement other disciplinary actions.
• They work from a public safety perspective and engage directly with the practitioner.

If at any point you require advocacy assistance with your complaint and its resolution, you can contact us, the Health Consumers’ Council, for advice on 9221 3422 (extension 1), or via advocacy@hconc.org.au

We are not a complaints management service, but we do offer support in navigating the existing complaint systems for WA health consumers.

When the Health Consumers’ Council (HCC) adopted its new Rules to conform with the updated Incorporations Act 2015, our Board became a Management Committee. The New Act provides some differentiation between larger organisations who have Boards as opposed to smaller organisations who have Management Committees.

2023-24 Management Committee

Mallika Macleod – Chair

Mallika brings many years of not-for-profit Board experience at state and national levels as a ‘young’ professional. She believes in the importance of good governance to support an Executive Director to uphold the vision and mission. Mallika is passionate about the importance of upholding citizens’ rights, and the key role of peak advocacy bodies in this. She believes human rights, and contemporary practice must be part of the dialogue at all levels, and we must have a body that can call out those institutions that are stuck in the dark ages and do not respect the rights of health customers and patients. She is the General Manager at Tura New Music and was previously the Director of Client Services at Disability in the Arts, Disadvantage in the Arts Australia (DADAA).

Niall Naghten – Deputy Chair

Niall has been a Certified Practicing Marketer of the Australian Marketing Institute since 2018 and has over 15 years’ experience at senior levels in a variety of industries. Originally from Ireland, Niall emigrated to Australia in 2012 and most recently moved into a senior consultancy role after leading the marketing and communications function at Activ Foundation for over four years.

While working at Activ Foundation, Niall helped to establish the crisis response team and eventually served as its Chair during the COVID-19 pandemic. This role saw him completely redirect the organisation’s focus to ensure that the health needs of thousands of individuals with intellectual disability were met.

Niall is passionate about ensuring that every person has equitable access to information that they need to make decisions about their health.

Rebecca Carbone – Secretary

In November 2014, Rebecca underwent surgery to partially resect a tumor located in her Cerebellum/Brain Stem. This was followed by a massive brain hemorrhage, and she was left with Locked-in-Syndrome (LiS). Her prognosis was dire – she was assessed as unable to be rehabilitated. She had three further inoperable tumors in 2015 and focused on intensive rehabilitation. She has learned to walk, see, speak, read, and write again. In 2018, she passed a driving assessment through the Independent Living Centre and has returned to study.

Prior to the surgery Rebecca worked her way from what was essentially a personal assistant role to a Quality and Welding Inspector trained to International ASME Standard. A traditionally masculine occupation, it took hard work and determination to achieve this.

Rebecca is extremely passionate about all aspects of health and wellbeing. She believes that health should be approached with a vision towards wellness as opposed to illness. Each consumer should be empowered to research and investigate methods of scientifically proven medical intervention and/or treatment so as to make an informed decision as to what will work best for their needs. She brings a very unique perspective to HCC’s Management Committee as a consumer; a woman with a disability that lives with chronic illnesses; a younger adult with an acquired brain injury that is commonly associated with the elderly; the cultural experience of as a child of Southern European migrants; and a volunteer in the health sector.

Ian Ludlow – Treasurer

Ian is a Chartered Accountant Fellow. Following eight years employed in public accounting practice, has over 25 years of experience working at senior levels in not-for-profit organisations serving the community in education, youth and adult accommodation, conference centre operations, large scale property management, insurance and risk management, and mental health services. He is currently the Business Manager for two schools in the Swan Christian Education Association.

He is involved in the community including volunteering with the Anglican Church for more than 30 years, with experience ranging from local parish, Central Diocese, National Church, governance, large scale youth work, and including company directorships of large and very large ($100M+ turnover) church entities delivering aged care. In more recent years, volunteering has included with Scouts WA as a leader supporting Cub Scout, Scout, and Venturer Scout sections in his local area.

Michael Crowley

Michael is an experienced legal practitioner and law academic in both Western Australia and New South Wales. He has over ten years’ experience teaching law at Edith Cowan University whilst maintaining a right of private practice as a barrister. As an academic, he taught and coordinated a range of law units including criminal law, advanced criminal law, terrorism and the law, security and the law, public international law, coronial law and mortuary practice, and the law of evidence. Other roles included mooting coordinator and course coordinator roles in law and forensic investigation and membership of ECU’s Security Research Institute. Research interests focused on international humanitarian law and terrorism. During this period as an academic he had extensive involvement in key international mooting competitions as moot problem writer, finals judge, arbitrator, moot executive committee member and coach. Previously in New South Wales his experience was as defense counsel in criminal law jury trials and conducting appellate work.

For some 10 years he was a lecturer in criminal law and procedure with the Law Extension Committee within the University of Sydney and a revising examiner for the Legal Practice Board of New South Wales. Before moving from New South Wales to Western Australia he was appointed visiting lecturer in law at Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China.

Meredith Waters

Meredith lives in Esperance and identifies as a carer for a family member, and an enthusiastic consumer representative for people living in rural and regional Australia. She is a member of a District Health Advisory Council and is a former Board Member of the WA Country Health Service. She also runs a local radio program.

Meredith was a board member with WACHS five years as a consumer representative and has seen firsthand how much more there is to be done in the area of effective consumer representation. She is particularly interested in health in regional and rural Australia.

Kim Brewster

Kim is passionate about person-centred care, improving healthcare outcomes for all West Australians, and ensuring the consumer’s voice is heard in interactions with healthcare staff and the health system more broadly.

Kim’s background is in Anthropology and Sociology and Human Rights Law. She is an experienced researcher and policy professional, having previously worked in research and evaluation – utilising research skills to develop strategic recommendations to inform policy, marketing campaigns, and decision making at various levels from Ministers through to policy and research teams.

She has worked for a number of not-for-profit organisations over the years and currently works in the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Sector (ACCHS) where she is a strong advocate for the ACCHS holistic Model of Care, preventative models of care, increased access to services (particularly for regional and remote communities), and local care in the community.

On a personal note, Kim has been both a consumer of health care and a carer for a family member, and has seen firsthand how difficult it can be to ensure your voice is heard within a complex and busy health system, and the need for consumers to be empowered to make informed choices.

Al Muhit

Al Muhit is the Director of Medical Technology at Child and Adolescent Health Service in WA. He grew up in a medical family and became passionate about patient-centred healthcare from a very young age. He has been involved with a number of not-for-profit organisations including Australian Doctors for Africa (ADFA), Osborne Park Rotary, and Bangladesh Australia Association of WA. Al has been instrumental in facilitating medical and imaging equipment donations to various Asian and African countries over the last decade, through these organisations. He wants to see consumers empowered by digital technologies and become active partners in the management of their healthcare.

Kirtida (Tina) Shah

Kirtida Shah is a health professional and has been a dedicated community leader for the last 12 years in Western Australia. Born in Ahmedabad, Kirtida migrated to Perth along with her family in 2005 and has since strived to promote both Gujarati and Indian culture amongst the wider Australian population. Her passions include women empowerment, awareness and education on domestic violence, engagement and promoting Indian culture, tradition and values. Kirtida was also an integral part of helping the community during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading the organisation of chartered flights to India from stranded citizens and family members. Furthermore, she arranged a taskforce in-charge of providing essential groceries for Indian students as well as individuals living in rural area.

In 2021, Health Consumers’ Council received a Community Awareness Grant from the Organ and Tissue Authority to undertake a project aimed at empowering Western Australians to increase their knowledge of the benefits of organ and tissue donation and transplantation, to encourage family discussion and know each other’s donation decisions, and to register online on the Australian Organ Donor Register.

We want West Australians to be able to make informed decisions about organ and tissue donation, and that means ensuring they can access the right resources to help them make the decision, register, and have that conversation with their family.

Our focus is on increasing awareness and encouraging conversation among Aboriginal people and people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds.

As part of the grant, we hosted community conversations with Aboriginal people, young Aboriginal people, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and young people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, to learn more about what the community already knows about organ and tissue donation, what they’d like to know, and what resources would be most beneficial for them.

You can request a copy of the insights from these community conversations by emailing info@hconc.org.au

What we learned

It quickly became clear that organ and tissue donation is a topic people in these communities want to talk about.

They told us they want to know more about the issue, and how it could impact them and their families. They want to be asked their thoughts on the topic, and how information can best be shared with their communities. They want to hear people’s stories.

Most importantly, these conversations need to be held in a way that is respectful of the donor, the donor family, culture, and personal beliefs. In particular, many of the young people we spoke to had lots of ideas about how information around organ and tissue donation can be shared with their communities.

These sessions showed us that the importance of the human connection and the stories of people who have been both donors and recipients, can’t be overestimated.

Resources

We produced a range of resources based on these community conversations, including a video, a series of graphics answering the most commonly asked questions, posters to add details of your own community conversation or event, and designs for two pull-up banner to be used at events.

If you’d like to receive high resolution images, a copy of the video, or discuss how you can use the banner or postsers, please email info@hconc.org.au

Inquiry into organ and tissue donation in Western Australia  

In February 2023, the Standing Committee on Public Administration announced the commencement of an inquiry into organ and tissue donation.

The Committee’s inquiry would consider issues and opportunities to improve organ and tissue donation rates in Western Australia, looking at:

• the effectiveness of the current model for organ and tissue donation in Western Australia
• issues impacting organ and tissue donation rates in Western Australia
• opportunities to improve organ and tissue donation rates in Western Australia
• and any other matters considered relevant by the Committee.

Health Consumers’ Council provided a submission to the enquiry based on the yarns, stories, and experiences of the consumers we consulted with through the Community Awareness Grant we received from the Organ and Tissue Authority.

We were then asked to speak further to these learnings and Clare, Tania and Nadeen from Health Consumers’ Council appeared before the Standing Committee for a hearing in June 2023. We were joined by Caz, a double lung transplant recipient who shared her story with us during the work we did in 2021.

You can read our submission to the inquiry here and watch a recording of our hearing before the Standing Committee here.

WA Private Health services

• If the service is private (GP, psychiatrist, specialist clinic, private hospital), your information will be kept and released in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988.
• You can apply for your records via a Privacy Act form, which most hospitals will have available on their website.
• The alternative is to email, call or mail, writing a letter requesting the records, including the service name, the dates, the specific documents you would like (clinical notes, test results, referrals, reports, discharge summaries, admission forms).
• You will need to submit one or two forms of ID which may need to be certified (driver’s licence, passport, Medicare card, pension card, bank card). Certification may be done by the privacy officers.
• The Privacy Act does not apply to deceased persons, and evidence that the applicant is the executor of the deceased person’s will is required.

WA Public Health Services

• If the service is public (public hospital, community mental health service)
• Your information will be kept and released in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 1992.
• All public health services will have a Freedom of Information office which deals exclusively with these requests. Most public services will have a FOI form, or you can use a letter template available on our website to request your records. The alternative is to call or email your request.
• You will need to include the service name, the dates, the specific documents you would like (clinical notes, test results, referrals, reports, discharge summaries, admission forms), and one or two forms of ID which may need to be certified.

How can I get incorrect personal information changed?

First, contact the service to discuss whether it will correct that information without the need for you to make a formal FOI or Privacy Amendment application.
If you need to make a formal request to the service, it will need to:

• Be in writing
• Give enough details to identify the relevant document
• Point to what information you believe is inaccurate, and explain why, with evidence, and
• Say how you want the information changed

Having records deleted or edited is quite rare, but having a note inserted which details your experience and truth allows for your voice to be heard in the context of your experience and your medical records.  Records are rarely changed because they reflect one professionals opinion at that one place in time, and to dispute this successfully requires a lot of irrefutable evidence. 

The option of including a note in your file instead of having your records amended is often an empowering experience.  You are able to write it (usually keep it to 1-2 pages), and you are able to request that it be placed permanently in your file.  

FAQs

There are a range of ways you might want to involve and partner with consumers, carers, family and community members in your work. This information may help you when considering involving consumer, carer, community or family representatives in a working group or committee, or similar structure.

Some things to consider when recruiting and working with consumer representatives:

• We recommend having at least two consumer representatives in most cases. This provides the representatives with some support and also enables you to seek a bit of diversity of perspectives. It may also help address some of the power imbalance which exists between people in different roles on the group.
• Consider if there are any groups that might have a perspective you’re interested in that may not come forward for this type of role – this can include people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, Aboriginal people, people with disability and people experiencing disadvantage, including homelessness – if your representatives don’t have these perspectives, you could consider how else you’ll find out what is important to these groups. (You can chat with us if these are groups you’re looking for input from.)
• Depending on the make-up of the rest of the group, and the level of experience of the consumer rep, you may want to consider the group and power dynamics in the working group. If this person will be the only consumer voice at the table, you could consider whether you, or the group Chair, might be able to reach out to the person in advance of the meeting. You might also want to follow up after the meeting to see if they have any questions or comments that they didn’t feel able to raise in the meetings.
• Be clear about what you’re hoping and expecting from the role and the person. For example:
  • How long and how often are meetings?
  • Are there lots of papers for them to read? Is it possible they might need these to be printed out and sent as hard copy?
  • Is the venue for the meetings easy to access? Is there plenty of parking? Or easy access to public transport? (We’d suggest always including information about these when confirming meeting arrangements.)
  • Are they expected to liaise with other consumers or community members to inform the input they provide to this group? How will they be supported to do this?
    • For example, we can circulate information about surveys and other consultations through our networks if that’s appropriate?
    • Bear in mind that many consumers have other commitments including family, work, and their own or their family’s health – they may not have time to do much extra work outside of meetings.
  • Have you confirmed whether you will be offering them a consumer participation payment?
    • You may already know that it’s good practice to fund the participation costs of consumer reps that are involved in this kind of work. It’s also helpful to clarify this up front.
    • This is the link to Health Consumers’ Council policy which gives a bit more information about some things to consider. The payment table is on page 9.
      SAA_05_CCE_Engagement-Policy.pdf
    • Some roles also pay for travel or parking expenses if the budget allows.
    • If you’d like to look at another policy, this is the one from the Mental Health Commission https://www.mhc.wa.gov.au/media/3614/paid-participation-policy-consultation-completed-amended-policy.pdf

We are always happy to chat through early ideas to help you develop your plan. If you’d like to talk through your plans for involving and partnering with consumers, please reach out to Kieran Bindahneem in the Engagement Team – kieran.bindahneem@hconc.org.au

Our team has worked with the Department of Health, the WA Primary Health Alliance and the Mental Health Commission and have an understanding of working within the parameters of different organisations.

Advertise for a consumer, carer, family, lived experience or community representative

If you have an representative opportunity you’d like us to promote to our networks, please complete this document and submit it to info@hconc.org.au

There are several ways you can have your complaint heard and responded to by the hospital.

A full list of hospitals and their feedback department contacts is at the bottom of this page. 

You may find these resources useful in your complaint efforts: 

1. Care Opinion: https://www.careopinion.org.au

This is a moderated platform run by an independent non profit organisation that takes your feedback directly to the hospital. Typically you will receive a response from the hospital within 72 hours of it being posted. The team moderate it before posting it so it is not immediately displayed. As all stories are moderated before publishing, please consider this when writing. For example,  critical stories will not be published with names included, they will be edited out. Some stories may not be published but you will be able to discuss this with Care Opinion. You can see their Moderation Policy here.

The Care Opinion website allows you to post your story, positive or negative, anonymously. The health service is identified but you remain anonymous. This story is published to the website where you, and everyone else can track its progress from your story being read, responded to, and a change made if necessary. The feedback is read by the highest level of health service management, so it is one of the most effective ways to make your voice count.
You can also email them at info@careopinion.org.au

We have advocated for this platform, also used in the United Kingdom and Ireland, because its transparency really changes the game. See this page for more information.

2. The consumer liaison/patient feedback service

Each hospital in Western Australia has a feedback department. These departments are made up of staff within the hospital who can help facilitate patient and family services within the hospital, as well as take down, investigate and respond to complaints about the hospitals service. There is a full list of these departments on this link or at the end of this document: https://www.healthywa.wa.gov.au/Articles/U_Z/WA-Health-patient-consumer-liaison-contacts

The rural hospitals complaints are managed via https://www.wacountry.health.wa.gov.au/About-us/Contact-us/Provide-feedback; a list of the regions and their contact details is available on this website.
You can email, call, submit online or post a complaint to these departments, and you have the right to be heard and to have your concerns and complaints recorded and responded to.
If you call, make sure to ask for a copy of the complaint in writing, and request a response in writing as well. If you would like a meeting with the health professional/s who were involved, you can also request this.  You can either phone or write to the individual hospital or health service. See their details below. 

3. If you are unhappy with the response from either option, you can escalate to AHPRA or HaDSCO:

AHPRA:
https://www.ahpra.gov.au/Notifications.aspx
AHPRA is the overarching body for all health professionals in Australia. They handle registrations and concerns/notifications regarding specific health practitioners. AHPRA is not able to get an apology or recognition from the medical professional, but they are able to investigate and put conditions on a professional’s practice, suspend or terminate their registration, and implement other disciplinary actions.
They work from a public safety perspective and engage directly with the practitioner.

HADSCO:
https://www.hadsco.wa.gov.au/Make-a-Complaint
HaDSCO is the overarching body for all health and disability service complaints in WA. They can investigate and provide explanations, apologies, changes in policy, refunds, access to services, education for the medical professionals and conciliation. HaDSCO will also communicate with AHPRA if required, and they operate with services in general.
Please include as much information as you have with the forms; you can write in a separate document and send that with the form if there is not enough room.
Also include the communication you have had previously with the health service, as HaDSCO will likely require you to have already submitted a complaint to the service previously.

The following options are listed as outcomes for HaDSCO processes, however it is not guaranteed that any or all of the selected outcomes will be achieved. 

• Explanation
• Access to service
• Apology
• Adequate service
• Change in policy or procedure
• Counselling/other support
• Refund/waiver of fees
• Disciplinary action
• Conciliation
• Training/education for service provider
• The option for ‘other’ – in which you can write your own.

If at any point you require advocacy assistance with your complaint and its resolution, you can contact us, the Health Consumers Council, for advice on 08 9221 3422 (extension 1), or via advocacy@hconc.org.au

To learn more about complaints in the public system, you can download the Complaints Management Policy here.

Public Western Australian Health Feedback Services 

North Metropolitan Health Service

South Metropolitan Health Service

East Metropolitan Health Service

Child and Adolescent Health Feedback Service

Perth Children’s Hospital

Title: Child and Family Engagement Services
Address: Perth Children’s Hospital, Locked Bag 2010, Nedlands WA 6909
Telephone: (08) 6456 0032
Email: cahs.feedback@health.wa.gov.au
Website: Perth Children’s Hospital (external site)

Country/Rural Feedback Services

WA Country Health Metro Office (they can link you to appropriate rural service)

189 Wellington Street, Perth WA 6000
PO Box 6680, East Perth Business Centre WA 6892
Telephone: +61 8 9223 8500
Facsimile: +61 8 9223 8599
Toll Free: 1800 629 028

Email: WACHS.SafetyQualityPerformance@health.wa.gov.au.

OR

Private Metropolitan Feedback Services

Saint John of God (all hospitals)

Here are links to recordings, talks and Q&A sessions.

Health Consumers’ Council 30th Anniversary

• Tribute video from some of the key stakeholders of the last 30 years (Full-length, approx 25 mins)
• Tribute video from some of the key stakeholders of the last 30 years (Highlights reel, approx 7 mins)
• Recording of formalities from 30th Anniversary event (available soon)

Fireside Chats

Our Fireside Chat series gives you the chance to hear from medical experts and have your questions about COVID-19 answered.

Director of Clinical Services, Royal Perth Bentley Group, Area Director of Clinical Services, East Metropolitan Health Service and Professor of Medicine, University of Western Australia, Professor Grant Waterer and Manager

After very positive feedback from our first chat with Prof. Waterer, we asked him back to provide another clinical update including information on antivirals to treat COVID-19, second generation vaccines long COVID and the latest on testing for COVID-19.

Recorded on Monday 12 September  2022.

Click here to view the recording of Prof. Waterer.

Perth Children’s Hospital clinicians:

• Dr Andrew Martin – Head of Department for Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH) General Paediatrics

• Chris Blyth – Paediatric Infectious Diseases Physician at PCH and former Co-Chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation

• Dr Michael Baker – Head of Department for PCH Emergency Department

• Dr Nick Gottardo – leading clinician in Haematology and Oncology

Top Perth Children’s Hospital discuss COVID and kids in the context of the current (Omicron) outbreak and take consumer questions on the topic.  Discussion includes current picture, vaccination, when to get help or present to the Emergency Department, COVID Care at Home and the Specialist Paediatric and Adolescent Remote Care (SPARC) service for very vulnerable children and COVID and immunocompromised children.

Click here to view the COVID and kids recording.

Director of Clinical Services, Royal Perth Bentley Group, Area Director of Clinical Services, East Metropolitan Health Service and Professor of Medicine, University of Western Australia, Professor Grant Waterer and Manager – Social Support, COVID Care Assistance Team (COVID CAT), Department of Health, Selena West.  

Professor Waterer provides a clinical update on COVID-19, as well as sharing his best tips on preparing for living with COVID, in the home and in the community. This will include advice on how to care for yourself, your family, or someone you care for, if you get COVID-19. 

Ms West provides an overview of COVIDCAT, the public health service designed to address the needs of people in the WA community who require additional support should they get COVID-19 or are required to isolate due to being a close contact.  Overview includes how service can help, who can access it, and how.

Recorded on Tuesday 8 March 2022.

Click here to view the recording of Prof. Waterer.

Click here to view the recording of Ms West.

Assistant Director General, Clinical Strategy and Planning, Dr Robyn Lawrence

Dr Robyn Lawrence gives an overview of WA COVID Care at Home.  She also answers consumer questions on the new remote monitoring service for high risk COVID positive patients in their homes.

Recorded on 18 February 2022.

Click here to view the recording.

Incident Commander at the State Health Incident Coordination Centre, Dr Tudor Codreanu

Dr Tudor Codreanu, Incident Commander at the State Health Incident Coordination Centre at Department of Health, discussed WA’s readiness for the next stage of living with Covid-19. Dr Codreanu works alongside the Chief Health Officer and public health team in the State Health Incident Control Centre, providing advice and support around WA’s response to COVID-19. This session explored the next stage of living with COVID-19, WA’s readiness, how the system has or is preparing, how consumers can prepare, vaccination, variants, modelling and everything in between.

Recorded on 14 December 2021.

The recording of this session will be available soon. 

Co-Chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, Dr Chris Blyth

Dr Chris Blyth, clinical academic at Telethon Kids Institute and Co-Chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI), Australia’s peak immunisation advisory group to Government answered consumer questions on the vaccine(s).  Dr Blyth was able to talk to some of the main side effects of concern and clearly explain some of ATAGI’s key considerations when deciding who is eligible for which vaccine and vaccine strategy.

Recorded on 5 August 2021.

Click here to view the recording.

Chief Health Officer, Andy Robertson

After a break from our Fireside Chats, we’re bringing the Q&A session back to talk to Chief Health Officer, Andy Robertson. WA’s hard borders are softening – now what?

Recorded on 18 December 2021.

Click here to view the recording.

Pathwest Chief Executive, Joe Boyle

For our sixth Fireside Chat we were joined by the Chief Executive of Pathwest, Joe Boyle.

We discussed COVID testing processes in WA and the role testing plays in ongoing vigilance in avoiding community spread.

Recorded on 27 August 2020

Click here to view the recording.

Director General of WA Health, Dr David Russell-Weisz

This was the second time the Director General of WA Health joined us for a Fireside chat, this time on Thursday 23rd July.

We discussed “COVID-19: What’s next for Western Australians”.

Recorded on 23 July 2020.

Click here to view the recording of this webinar (45m35s)

Aboriginal Health with Wendy Casey

This 45 minute session addressed questions about how the WA health system has prioritised responding rapidly to the risks posed to, and the needs of, Aboriginal communities in Western Australia during COVID-19. You can find some of the work reflected on this webpage. Also discussed was the Journey of Health and Wellbeing Video developed in partnership with WA Health, Danny Ford and Tim Muirhead as part of the cultural competency training work, Mary G’s Telehealth video, and the Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing Framework

Recorded on 25 June 2020.

Click here to view the recording of this webinar (41m30s)

Staying Well in a Pandemic, Dr Denise Sullivan

The third in our series of Fireside Chats was held on Thursday 11th June with Dr Denise Sullivan. It tackled your questions about how to minimise the risk of infection, how the impact of the pandemic is being tracked and preparation for recovery. It also explored what it’s been like for Public Health staff during this unprecedented time.

Recorded on 11 June 2020.

Click here to view the recording of this webinar (44m35s)

WA Health Assistant Director General, James Williamson

The second in our series of Fireside Chats was with James Williamson, WA Health Assistant Director General, Clinical Excellence Division. Health Consumers’ Council Executive Director Pip Brennan put your COVID-19 research-related questions to James Williamson in this informal, virtual event.

Recorded on 28 May 2020.

Click here to watch the video (58 minutes)

Director General of WA Health, Dr David Russell-Weisz

The first Fireside Chat was with the Director General of WA Health, Dr David Russell-Weisz.

Recorded on 14 May 2020.

Click here for the video replay of the event (55 minutes)

Other recordings

Audio Recording: Implementing Care Opinion in the health and social care sectors – lessons from Scotland 2021

Audio Recording – AGM Panel Discussion – Roger Cook, Zak Kirkup, Rachel Siewert 2020

How consumers shaped the Healthy Weight Action Plan and what’s next

Consumer and carer Involvement in COVID-19 Research

Engaging consumers, carers and community in primary care

Engaging Consumers Carers and Community  in Advance Care Planning

Choosing Wisely – reducing unnecessary tests and treatments

The implementation of the Sustainable Health Review is expected to be a ten-year process. The commitment to new approaches to support citizen and community partnership should open many doors for consumer, carer and community representatives to be involved. In order to support us to be effective, this page aims to provide up to date information about the Sustainable Health Review.

There was a Consumer Briefing Session on the Sustainable Health Review conducted on 19th October 2020 by Nicole O’Keefe and Nicole Bennett from the WA Department of Health here or click the video link below:

You can also access copies of the slides here from the presentations here:

• Sustainable Health Review Implementation Update 19 Oct 2020
• Sustainable Health Review – Outcomes, Success and Social Impact

26th October 2020 Community Conversations and Feedback

After the 19th October session, we ran a further session which was a chance for consumers to reflect on all the information provided at the 19th October session and give their feedback on what were some of their ideas.

Click here to read the report

Click here to read the PowerPoint report

Updates on specific recommendations

Recommendation 2a: Halt the rise in obesity in WA by July 2024 and have the highest percentage of population with a healthy weight of all states in Australia by July 2029

In this short (11m) video, we give a brief overview of what we know about the plans in regards to this recommendation as of early August 2021. You can find out more about Health Consumers’ Council’s work in this area at https://www.hconc.org.au/partners-in-change-healthy-weight/ We are also adding more videos to our You Tube playlist – click here to view