The key to great health care
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"You can never pause in health," according to Bendigo Health's chairman, Mr Bob Cameron.
"People are getting older, so we're getting a lot more patients and the technology continues to change."
In 2013 Bendigo Health launched their five year Strategic Plan (2013-2018), with a vision for 'Healthy Communities and World-class Health Care'.
This five year plan, now in its final year, provided a roadmap of priorities set by the Bendigo Health board to guide the day to day work of the health service.
Bendigo Health are now preparing for the development of their new plan, which will be a refresh of the current plan.
This is being formulated through ongoing consultation, research and planning to help understand the community’s needs, identify gaps in services and continue developing them to ensure the community are well equipped for the future.
Bendigo Health are looking to their staff, patients, partners and the Loddon Mallee community to share their thoughts about the health service and where we head.
Mr Cameron said they're working hard to offer not just good but great, reliable health care that plays a critical role in the health and wellbeing of the entire community.
“The board has embarked on the work we’ve put forward and to do that we work closely with our staff and this time we'd like some community engagement as in the past that’s been very limited,” Mr Cameron said.
“At the moment the vision is, healthy communities and world class health care.
“But do we need to change that vision? We would like to call upon the community to share their feedback.”
A set of values were devised by the staff in an extensive consultation process to accompany the Strategic Plan.
The three agreed values of 'Caring, Passionate and Trustworthy', have been widely adopted and embraced throughout Bendigo Health.
A changing community with changing needs
The Bendigo Hospital Project is currently the largest regional hospital development in Victoria, the construction began in 2013 and stage one of the Bendigo Hospital Project was recently completed in late January 2017. Stage two is expected to be completed in mid 2018.
"Bendigo is a great and growing city and we have a new Bendigo hospital so we've had significant transformation of a hospital that has got capability for the decades ahead," Mr Cameron said.
The new hospital has boosted health services in the Loddon Mallee region and the technology in the new facility will deliver a range of benefits to both patients and staff.
In addition to the new hospital, Bendigo Health have a number of residential care homes, community care services and mental health inpatient and outpatient services.
Their services extend across regional areas of Loddon Mallee, with particular consideration to psychiatry and community care, along with an extensive outpatient rehabilitation service and a large dental service.
Bendigo Health's challenges now focus on continuing to expand their services to eliminate the need for the community to travel far distances for hospital care, such as Melbourne.
"Over the years we've created more and more services and Bendigo people can now essentially get their hospital care here, but we want to make sure that's the case for not only Bendigo but the north of the state," Mr Cameron said.
"Our strategic direction is working towards being able to meet the demands of the future and part of that is about listening to our community and working with our partners to ensure our region has access to the same high quality health services," Mr Cameron said.
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