Community Advisory Council

Services We Offer

The Community Advisory Council was established in July 1996 in keeping with the Hospital’s Strategic Plan, which identifies the importance of a patient (and carer) focus throughout Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.

Contact Details

Ms Yvonne Parnell
Chair

Phone: 040 4891997

Ms Tanya Basile
Executive Sponsor

Phone: 61 8 9346 1828

Ms June Cruickshank
Administrative Support

Phone: 61 8 9346 1828

Physical Location

The administration of the Community Advisory Council is conducted from:

c/- Heart & Lung CSU
6th Floor, G Block
Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
Nedlands WA 6009

About Us

The Community Advisory Council was established in July 1996 in keeping with the Hospital’s Strategic Plan, which identifies the importance of a patient focus throughout Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.

Mission Statement

Actively providing and encouraging community participation to improve patient care and services.

Role and Purpose

The role of the Council is to enhance the patient care services provided by the Hospital.

The Council exists to:

review the Hospital’s performance of patient services
provide input into policy review
review patient information
facilitate the participation of appropriate community/consumer representation on Hospital committees
review Hospital responses to patient/carer complaints
facilitate broad community consultation
provide a consumer perspective on activities, initiatives and projects that impact on the Hospital’s care and services
emphasise patient responsibilities
encourage effective communication between:

patients and staff
care providers within the Hospital
Hospital care providers and external health providers
the Hospital and the community

Provide feedback to the Hospital’s Executive and medical departments to improve patient care and services

the Hospital’s performance in terms of patient care indicators
the Hospital’s patient care policies and procedures
the adequacy of response mechanisms to complaints
appropriate mechanisms to ensure broad community consultation/participation
the development of consumer evaluation/patient satisfaction surveys.
a consumer perspective on activities, initiatives and projects that impact on the users of the health service.

In particular, the Council will:

emphasise patients’ and the Hospital’s respective rights and responsibilities.
provide a forum for community input into the provision of patient focused services at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.
provide a forum to raise and examine suggested changes to the systems surrounding care provision.
encourage communication to maximise the co-ordination between all care providers both internally and externally.
provide feedback and advice to departments to enhance the patient focus of their services.

Accountability

The Council is accountable and reports to the Hospital Executive Committee through the Executive Sponsor. The Chair will meet with the Chief Executive on a quarterly basis.

Membership

The Council seeks to have broadly based membership that takes into account the profile of the users of the Hospital services and this would be open to include representatives from the following:

representative Health Consumers’ Council
community representatives from Disabilities Services
representative with senses impairment eg deafness, blindness
representative with mobility impairment eg wheelchair bound
community representatives
patient support group representative
internal volunteer representative
external volunteer representative
indigenous representatives
past SCGH Medical/Nursing Staff
ethnic representatives

The Chief Executive will nominate a Chair from the Council for a term of two years.

The Community Advisory Council reserves the right to co-opt relevant Hospital staff as appropriate to aid in the development and implementation of recommendations.

Term of Office

Community membership will be for an initial two-year term with the option to extend for a maximum of 3 continuous terms.

Reporting

The Executive Sponsor reports the activities of the Council to the Hospital Executive Committee. The Chair meets with the Chief Executive on a quarterly basis.

Meetings

Meetings will be held once a month on a day and time agreed by the Council.

Administrative Support

Administrative/secretarial support to the Council will be provided by the Executive Sponsor.

Members

Ms Yvonne Parnell (Chair)

Ms Tanya Basile, (Nurse Co-Director)
Executive Sponsor, SCGH

Ms Tracey Beckwith (Patient Liaison Manager)
Hospital Representative

Dr David Oldham (GP Liaison Officer)
Hospital Representative

Ms Laura Elkin
Health Consumers’ Council Representative
Indigenous Representative

Mr Bob Paterson
Long term patient experience

Ms Judith Watson
Long term patient experience

Ms Anne Cordingley
Former SCGH Nurse, Community Representative

Ms Stephanie Williamson
Community Representative

Ms Patricia Anderson
Mobility Impaired

Mr Ramdas Sankaran
Multi-cultural representative

Mr Sergio Cooper
Multi-cultural representative