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Local Health Districts

Clinical Support Division

On 22 November 2010, NSW Health announced the next step in the transition to Local Health Districts with the establishment of three geographically based Clinical Support Division and the appointment of their Chief Operating Officers.

Each Clinical Support Division will be linked to and support the Local Health Districts in a defined geographic area.

To be known as Northern, Southern and Western Clinical Support Division, each will be linked to and support a group of Local Health Districts to provide ongoing, high level clinical support, expertise and advice.

NSW’s Clinical Support Division will have three main roles: 

  1. Support and assist Local Health Districts to start up on January 1 2011, and progressively transition to full operation;
  2. Preserve and support ongoing development of clinical networks. This was a recurring theme of the consultation process. Clinicians requested that we ensure the new structure preserved highly successful clinical networks and that the networks continue to be developed within the new LHD structure;
  3. Provide access for Local Health Districts to the best expertise and technical support available in the NSW public health system. This approach enables NSW to comply with the National Health Reform Agreement (Clause A15) that stipulates there should be no net increase in the number of health bureaucrats, despite the transition from eight Area Health Services to 17 Local Health Districts.

Boundaries

On 29 September 2010, the NSW Government announced (video) the final boundaries for new Local Health Districts (LHDs).

LHDs are a key requirement of the National Health Reform Agreement, finalised in April 2010. NSW has secured an additional $1.2 billion in funding for the State’s public health system over the next four years and will open 488 additional hospital beds in 2010/11.

NSW will have 18 LHDs in place from 1 January 2011. They will be among the first to be established in Australia and are the result of extensive consultation with clinicians and the community. Nearly 400 submissions were received by NSW Health and contributed to the final make-up of the new structure.

List of Local Health Districts:

Eight LHDs cover the Sydney metropolitan region, and seven cover rural and regional NSW. In addition, two specialist networks will focus on Children's and Paediatric Services, and Forensic Mental Health. A third network will operate across the public health services provided by three Sydney facilities operated by St Vincent's Health: these include St Vincent's Hospital and the Sacred Heart Hospice at Darlinghurst and St Joseph’s at Auburn.

One of the most important outcomes of health reform is the strengthening of local decision-making in the way NSW public hospitals are managed and resourced. The Districts will be administered by a Chief Executive and local Governing Council headed by Chairs (video of the announcement) that will include clinicians, healthcare management experts and community representatives.

Existing local Health Advisory Councils will continue to play a role in ensuring hospital administrators are aware of community needs and expectations.

With the significant increase in localisation and specialisation comes an added responsibility that every public health organisation in NSW meets high standards of patient care.

The role played by the Clinical Excellence Commission (CEC) has been enhanced to ensure that there continues to be an unimpeded two-way flow of information and interaction across the public health system between clinicians, hospitals, LHDs and NSW Health.

Three Clinical Governance Liaison positions will be created. They will report to the CEC and interact with Local Health District Clinical Governance Units.

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This web page is managed and authorised by Strategic Communications of the NSW Department of Health. Last updated: 25 July, 2011