Tuesday 31 Oct | 13:00-14:30

 

Part 1: Re-imagining consumer engagement: Health system resilience & the COVID-19 pandemic

Reflections on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic often evoke the concept of ‘resilience’ to describe the way health systems adjusted and adapted their functions to withstand the disturbance of a crisis. As an integral part of the health system, health consumer representatives in New South Wales (NSW) played a crucial role in bringing the voices of patients, carers and the wider community to the pandemic response – but not in the way they expected. The pandemic has served as an unexpected backdrop for important transformations in the consumer engagement space – now and into the future.

Objectives:

• Understand how the theory of systems resilience can be applied to changes in the consumer engagement movement due to the COVID-19 pandemic


• Gain knowledge about how COVID-19 impacted on health consumer representatives working in diverse contexts and communities throughout NSW health services and how they responded


• Gain knowledge about the value of co-research and co-design in the context of this particular study

Patti Shih, University of Wollongong, Australia

Anthony Brown, Health Consumers New South Wales, Australia

Laila Hallam, NSW, Australia

 

Part 2: Speaking “truth to power”: How a rural town saved their medical workforce, their patients, their lives

In February and March 2022, Lismore Northern NSW Australia suffered two major catastrophic floods to the town , over 14 metres through the township in the space of 28 days. It is now 12 months since those floods events, and the Northern Rivers region is still trying to regain, and retain its medical workforce and to survive, whilst maintaining quality and safety in primary care clinics and state funded hospitals Despite a health care system that is lauded around the world for its approach to “universal care for all”, it transpires that medical facilities are not considered “essential “ in the face of a natural disaster to any level of government in Australia There appears to be no literature on the effect of natural disaster in the form of floods to regional /rural communities and their medical workforce Hence we offer “our lived experience “ on how the medical community rallied in the face of “once (?twice ) in a lifetime catastrophic events to maintain patient safety and survival , whilst trying to rebuild. If you want to know what life is like without primary care facilities , how this impacts on your hospital system, and importantly , what you can do as a leader in your community – then this is the session you need to attend …. How can we save another community from this ongoing tragedy in the future?

Objectives:

• Understand the physical and mental challenges placed on a community during natural disaster involving floods


• Understand the challenges faced when advocating for the medical and local community at local,state and Commonwealth levels of government during a flood disaster


• In the event of future disasters , have a checklist for future medical leaders and how they respond to apparent “firewalls“ in government policy
  
  

Sue Velovski, Northern Rivers Surgical Group, Australia

 

Part 3: Working together to embed virtual care in NSW: The value of partnering with consumers

This session will explore NSW Health’s transformative approach to integrating virtual care as a safe, effective and accessible option for healthcare delivery in NSW – and the value of engaging consumers in the process. Karol Petrovska, Director, Virtual Care, NSW Health, Shannon Nott, Rural Health Director of Medical Services, Western NSW LHD and Laila Hallam, Consumer Representative will discuss the critical role consumers play in virtual care design, delivery and evaluation. They will also share examples of virtual care models that are transforming:

• Patient experiences of receiving care


• Clinician experiences of providing care


• Effectiveness and efficiency


• Outcomes that matter to patients

Objectives:

• Understand the value of partnering with consumers when designing, delivering and measuring virtual care models, implementation and change processes


• Understand NSW Health’s approach to embedding virtual care as a safe, quality and accessible option for healthcare delivery across the state
  
  

Karol Petrovska, NSW Health, Australia

Shannon Nott, NSW Health, Australia

Laila Hallam, NSW Health, Australia