ANNUAL REPORT - Northern Health

Chair’s Report
Northern Health provides quality care to residents in
Victoria’s fastest growing, northern growth corridor. We
provide care to some 500,000 people living in Melbourne’s
northern suburbs and to rural and regional centres north
of Melbourne.
Our five campuses, Broadmeadows Health Service, Bundoora
Extended Care Centre, Criagieburn Health Service, Panch
Health Service and The Northern Hospital provide care
throughout all stages of life and in a variety of settings from
acute and sub acute, to community based and in-home
services.
Northern Health continues to adapt to the needs of the
community and during this last year, my final one as Chair
of the Northern Health Board, it has been particularly
rewarding to see significant organisational change take
place in response to these ever increasing demands on
our services.
Since 2005 when I came to Northern Health, I am
particularly proud of some of the major achievements
Northern Health has made including:
• the opening of the Day Oncology Service at The Northern
Hospital to provide chemotherapy services
to people in their local area;
• the opening of Craigieburn Health Service enabling the
delivery of sophisticated healthcare services to an area
historically under-resourced and growing rapidly;
• implementation of the HealthSMART technology
program, an integrated patient and financial
management information system;
• The Northern Hospital - Stage 2A Capital Development
which delivered two new medical wards, a refurbished
Paediatric Ward, and a redesigned Paediatric Outpatients
area, as well as the crucial expansion to the Outpatients
Department;
• the opening of the Medical Assessment and Planning
Unit (MAPU) at The Northern Hospital, which receives
medical inpatients for observation, care and treatment
prior to transfer to a ward, another care facility or home.
Patients receive intensive treatment by physicians, nurses
and allied health staff for up to 48 hours, streamlining
care and improving health outcomes;
• the Transit Lounge at The Northern Hospital where we
can care for patients waiting for ambulance transport
home or elsewhere, allowing us to promptly prepare
another bed for patients awaiting admission;
• the development and implementation of the “Time-out”
process in operating theatres to ensure that the correct
procedure is carried out on the correct patient;
• the implementation of ‘Centres Promoting Health
Independence’ and ‘Improving Care for Older People’
initiatives which aim to move to a more person-centred
approach for older patients;
• extensive redevelopment and refurbishment of Bundoora
Extended Care Centre;
• the Client Patient Folder system was implemented,
making Northern Health the first Victorian health service
to have completed the full implementation of a scanned
medical record within all campuses. The new scanned
medical record replaces the existing hard copy medical
records and provide clinical staff with immediate
access to patient information from every PC within
Northern Health;
• the ongoing planning and development of the Northern
Health Academic and Research Precint;
• the redevelopment of the Short Stay Unit and After
Hours GP Clinic at The Northern Hospital;
• the $19.4m Mental Health extension at The Northern
Hospital; and
• The $2.5m, six bed maternity expansion.
2 09/10 Northern Health Annual Report