ANNUAL REPORT - Northern Health

Our Achievements cont’d...
A review of the use of agency and bank nursing staff was
undertaken with the development of an organisation wide
approach to the casual workforce as well as a reduction in
expenditure in this area. An extensive review of the nursing
roster system resulted in the improvement and development
of the electronic rostering system.
Northern Health was one of the first health services to
join Health Purchasing Victoria an independent statutory
authority which was formed to improve the collective
purchasing power of Victorian public hospitals and
health services and to achieve ‘best value’ outcomes in
the procurement of health related goods, services and
equipment. Health Purchasing Victoria works in partnership
with public hospitals and health services in order to
understand their requirements, facilitate large scale tenders
and manage common use contracts on behalf of the state.
Improving infrastructure to care for our community
Northern Health has continued to build new facilities
and increase services to meet the needs of our growing
community.
The Strategic Master Plan and Feasibility Study for the
redevelopment of The Northern Hospital is proceeding and
Northern Health has prepared the Strategic Clinical Services
Plan, Model of Care and Functional Brief documentation
which have been endorsed by the Department of Health.
The $29.6m Short Stay and Mental Health Projects are
nearing completion with the opening of the Short Stay Unit
in August 2009. This project also included the upgrade of
The Northern Hospital’s core infrastructure services and car
parking facilities.
The $2.5m, six bed extension to the Maternity Ward at The
Northern Hospital has been completed with the additional
beds to be commissioned in 2010/2011. This expansion
will provide increased capacity to deliver an additional 500
babies each year.
Northern Health has provided assistance to Plenty Valley
Community Health in the design and development of the
GP Super Clinic at South Morang.
Design and documentation is proceeding on the $7.4m
Cardiac Catheter Suite and the $6.2m redevelopment of The
Northern Hospital front entrance. These projects are planned
to be completed between 2011 and 2012.
Caring for the community and the environment
Northern Health acknowledges the importance of protecting
environmental values as part of a global community and
within its vision of creating a healthier northern community.
Through its planning and practice, Northern Health is
committed to ensuring the protection of the environment
by keeping environmental impacts to a minimum in a
sustainable, financially rewarding and technically feasible
manner. This includes:
• confirmation that Northern Health sees improving the
environmental sustainability of its operations, planning
processes, policy and procedural development as a core
organisational goal and a general statement of how it is
striving to achieve this – for example, by implementing
a formal environmental management program, an
environmental management policy and specific actions;
• identifying the benefits that Northern Health has
already achieved through implementing environmental
management actions including reduced operational
costs, reduced energy and water consumption and
effective risk management;
• designing an Environmental Management Strategy (EMS)
which demonstrates what Northern Health is already
doing and what it proposes to undertake to reduce
impacts in its range of operations, planning, policy and
procedural development;
• recognition that meeting the challenge posed by
climate change and other environmental issues is
the responsibility of all government agencies and the
important role the CEO must play in guiding the growth
of Northern Health if this challenge is to be met;
• commitment to the principle of continuous improvement
in environmental management and that this strategy
provides a basis upon which to build into the future; and
• recognition of links between environmental sustainability,
climate change and human health.
Northern Health joined the Ecobuy program and is
recognized as a leader in environmental management
particularly around our work on water savings and waste
management. Northern Health has reduced landfill by 33%,
increased recycled waste by 32% and further reduced our
water consumption by more than 30%. We have reduced
our carbon footprint by 873kg by installing ‘smart trash’
meters and implemented electronic systems to replace paper
24 09/10 Northern Health Annual Report