Mark Hartigan
As an organisation with our heart in the health of the country our people are spread far and wide across the state. Immersed in their communities they understand the way different rural communities tick and how we can best work with them to improve primary health care in country South Australia. Due to our organisation’s geographical spread we don’t get the chance to regularly meet with one another face to face. A perennial highlight on our calendar is always our annual All of Staff meeting which gives us the opportunity to come together as one.
Last week we met on Ngadjuri, Ngarrindjeri and Peramangk Country (Barossa Valley). On behalf of Country SA PHN, I would like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands across Australia and pay respect to Elders past, present and future. We recognise and respect the unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters, and seas, which continue to be important to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living today.
As always, it was fantastic to catch up in person with our colleagues and share stories, anecdotes, and experiences. We were also fortunate to have our Board present and able to run concurrent face to face sessions. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Board for their wise contributions, counsel and steering through 2022.
Our people had an inspiring and thought-provoking presentation from the Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health and a great interactive presentation from our Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group. This was further enhanced by our guest Barbara Chappell who helped us build on what we have learnt about reconciliation, where we are collectively at across the organisation and how we can work to embed reconciliation across all our daily activities.
We also had a significant opportunity to consider our organisation’s values and our future focus. It was a real privilege in an increasingly busy world to have the time to stop, evaluate, share, and consider each other. Thank you to Leaders HP for facilitating and thank you to all our people for engaging so fully and genuinely with these sessions. I am looking forward to where the reflections and plans from this day take us.
We also formally celebrated the illustrious career of our former Chief Executive Officer Kim Hosking. Kim was Country SA PHN CEO since our inception and his contribution to the organisation is ever present in all that we do and strive to achieve. I would like to thank Kim once again for his service to primary health care in country South Australia. We wish him well for his retirement.
We also launched our 2021-22 Country SA PHN Annual Report. I encourage you all to click here and read about just some of the wonderful programs we have commissioned and the differences they have made to people’s health journeys and lives in country South Australia. We are often caught up in the doing but it is also important to take a moment to step back and assess and celebrate some of the achievements. These, of course, would not be possible without the great and solid relationships we have with our collaborators. Our service providers and other organisations are integral partners as we work together towards closing the gap in health inequity for those of living in rural and remote parts of our state.
In this year’s Annual Report, we have highlighted an outstanding example across each of our different portfolios to showcase the success but also the breadth and diversity of some of our funded activities. The scope, ingenuity and achievements of these programs is truly outstanding. I would like to thank and congratulate all who have been involved in making these activities successful and improving the lives of country South Australians.
