Grampians Health leaders meet with Stawell community to discuss current and future developments

 

Grampians Health’s Stawell site hosted our Annual General Meeting last week where the Board convened to discuss all the current and future developments.  

As part of our commitment to continue our dialogue with the community and share our progress, Grampians Health conducted a drop-in session for the residents in Stawell.  

Senior leaders of Grampians Health engaged in fruitful discussions with the local community to understand more about their needs and expectations from the local health service. Our leaders also shared their vision and future plans for the Stawell hospital with the residents and updated them about the recent developments at the health service.   

Grampians Health was formed on November 1, 2021 following the amalgamation of Edenhope & District Memorial Hospital, Stawell Regional Health, Ballarat Health Services, and Wimmera Health Care Group with the goal of providing high quality and safe care to people across the Grampians region. 

Following the formation of Grampians Health, Stawell has witnessed several developments with the major one being elimination of out of pocket fees for residents visiting the urgent care. The removal of urgent care fees was possible owing to the Stawell hospital being able to utilise a funding model that was available to it as a Grampians Health campus.   

In line with its commitment to provide quality healthcare, Grampians Health also recently established a position of a Hospital Medical Officer (an on-site doctor) at the Stawell hospital, who will be supported by specialists via telehealth in Horsham, to provide timely care to patients in Stawell.   

Surgical services at Grampians Health Stawell are also being developed and we plan to increase the number of operating theatres in Stawell to 2. As a result, we aim to complete an additional 1800 surgeries in a year in Stawell   

Our workforce is our biggest asset and we are extremely proud of them and their service to the communities they serve. But, like most other healthcare providers, we too face recruitment challenges and are looking to counter them with clinical placements and other training programs. We are also looking to attract medical staff who are open to living and working within the regional areas and closer to communities they are serving.   

Our vision for Grampians Health Stawell campus over the long term is to transform it into a contemporary and sustainable health service by making available a wide range of services to the community.   

We are dedicated to our goal of building on the strength of each campus and increasing the range of services offered to make care more accessible across regional and rural communities we serve.