September 28, 2016
The Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service has held the first meeting of its new Consumer Council.
The council consists of three independent members selected after calls for expressions of interest, as well as a nominated representative from existing health consumer advisory groups in the South Burnett, Western Downs and Southern Downs regions.
They were joined by representatives from the Aged Care Cluster, Toowoomba Hospital, Mental Health and the Darling Downs & West Moreton Primary Health Network.
The aim of the council is to provide oversight to consumer engagement activities throughout the health service.
DDHHS Chief Executive Dr Peter Gillies welcomed the members to their first meeting, which was held in Toowoomba.
“Consumer engagement is really important and I, in particular, am really interested in the input of consumers into what we are doing in the DDHHS,” Dr Gillies said.
“In the past, the health system has been very paternalistic and all about ‘the doctor knows best’ but we have moved away from that now to where consumer input should be part of everything that we do.”
DDHHS Acting Executive Director Medical Services Dr Martin Byrne said traditionally the public health system had been “insular”.
“Now we are able to be much more open and transparent and we believe that people want to know what is going on,” he said.
“We too want to know how we can provide a better service and how we can work with the community to provide not just what patients need but also what patients want.
“We do a lot of testing on meeting targets and we have lots of numbers but we also want to make sure the other side is working well and that people are getting a good experience when they use our services.
“We are all consumers as some stage, whether that is directly as a patient, or indirectly as a family member or carer of someone who is using the health system.
“Each of the council members brings their own unique experiences and we want to hear their different voices and different perspectives.”
The first meeting was an opportunity for the council members to meet each other, many for the first time, and to undertake some training and induction into their new roles.
The council will meet every two months, initially in Toowoomba but with the aim to meet elsewhere in the health service region as soon as possible.
It will also conduct twice-yearly consumer forums where community members will be invited to participate in discussions on topics including the provision of services and models of care, or new initiatives being planned.
