Media Release
WHEN: Tuesday 25 June 2013
WHERE: Board room, meet at hospital campus front entrance
WHAT: Launch of Strategic Plan 2013 - 2018
June 25, 2013
Bendigo Health will unveil its new five year Strategic Plan tomorrow, headlined by a bold new vision; Healthy Communities and World Class Healthcare.
Bendigo Health Board Chair Dr Michael Langdon said the Strategic Plan 2013-2018 provides guidance and certainty about the direction Bendigo Health is taking as it enters an exciting new era.
“All organisations need a plan that provides direction and guidance to staff, patients, residents and community members, which this document does,” Dr Langdon said.
“It also provides certainty and leadership to all stakeholders about the future of Bendigo Health and what we will focus on to achieve our goals,” Dr Langdon said.
Dr Langdon said the goals and strategies leading the Strategic Plan for the next five years are:
· Educating patients, residents, families and communities to take greater control of their health and their healthcare in order to build a healthy community
· Empowering our staff and volunteers to care for our community by building a high performance workforce and ensuring our services are the best possible world class standard
· Working with partners to connect our services by planning and sharing our resources and supporting the development of a highly integrated health system across the Loddon Mallee region
· Operate safely and sustainably by proactively planning and delivering high quality services within our means and continuously improving the quality and safety of our services.
“These goals underpin our role as a major stakeholder in the health of our community and to deliver our strategic objectives for the next five years,” Dr Langdon said.
Bendigo Health CEO John Mulder said the Vision sets a clear direction for Bendigo Health and the wider community.
“This is a really important vision for Bendigo Health and indeed for the wider community to embrace,” he said.
“In many ways country living is better than in the city, but statistics show we have lower life expectancy than our city counterparts, higher than average rates of chronic disease –which are largely preventable, and an ageing and growing population.
“We have two choices. We can either keep treating patients, in a system with limited resources and budgets, whose hospital admission can be prevented or we can look at ways we can influence the health and wellbeing of the community.
“Whether it is the type of services we provide, increased health promotion or how we can better partner with our patients, community agencies and the wider public.
“It is our vision that healthy communities take care of themselves and each other. The people who live in a healthy community are actively involved in their own care and their approach to their health which means they are less likely to need a hospital stay, or recover more quickly.
“For Bendigo Health, every patient interaction is an opportunity to access the patient’s overall health and identify any risk factors that may be early indicators of a lifestyle or chronic disease developing so we can treat accordingly.”
A set of three Values also form part of the Strategic Plan, which guide core behaviours of staff over the life of the plan.
· Caring – we care for our community
· Passionate – we are passionate about doing our best
· Trustworthy – we are open, honest and respectful
“The great thing about our Values is that they were developed and selected by our staff,” Mr Mulder added.
“These are not just words plucked from the sky. These are meaningful behaviours our staff chose that they want to reflect in their work environment and towards our patients, residents, families and the community.”
With the implementation of the new strategic plan, the previous plan ‘Working as One’ finishes.
“Our staff can be enormously proud of what they have achieved over the past five years,” Mr Mulder said.
“Everyone has worked hard to ensure we are a sustainable organisation and have laid the foundations to take Bendigo Health from a good organisation to a great one over the next five years.”
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Media enquiries:
Shaun Makepeace
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m. 0408 037 044
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