What is consumer and community participation?

Community, carer and patient participation ensures meaningful engagement with our communities.

Northern Sydney Local Health District promotes and supports partnering with our community and consumers to foster strengthened decision-making about treatment, health service development and quality improvement.

At all stages of health service provision, community members have the opportunity to be involved in decision-making. Partnering with our consumers is more than just consultation – it involves working in collaboration with our consumers and communities to make decisions, solve problems, plan and deliver quality services to our community.​

Partnering with our community:

• promotes the exchange of information and sharing of stories

• improves the quality and transparency of decisions

• supports an inclusive approach to opinion formation about health issues

• can reduce delays in implementing plans and policies

• promotes accountability

• increases the likelihood that health services will be relevant, and so uptake will be improved

• spreads community understanding of how health services operate

• increases community appreciation of constraints on the health system

• increases staff and management appreciation of how services are perceived by the community

• increases credibility when lobbying for additional funding

• improves the community's and patient's sense of control over factors affecting their health

• improves health outcomes

Click here to read more on partnering in your care.
 

Support from the NSLHD Board

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The NSLHD Board encourages the district to partner with our community to improve our services. The NSLHD Consumer Committee is a Board subcommittee that comprises up to four consumer representatives, up to four Board members and a number of NSLHD staff. The committee has two primary functions:

To provide Board assurance and strategic advice in relation to the consumer/carer experience of health care.

To develop effective communication and engagement strategies for our NSLHD community.

The NSLHD Board Consumer Committee is just one of numerous consumer committees that enable the NSLHD to collaborate with our consumers to improve our services.

The Committee’s key function is to advise, monitor and appraise the efficacy of systems implemented by NSLHD to support partnering with consumers to improve the safety and quality of our services. Membership of the committee is derived from the local health service community participation committees and advisory councils.

In addition to our committee structure, NSLHD also engages consumers on short-term and one-off focussed projects which aim to improve specific areas of our health services.

The Consumer and Patient Experience Unit, located within the clinical governance directorate, is responsible for the promotion and coordination of consumer engagement within the district.

How to join?

 Click here for details on how to join as a consumer advisor.
  

Who to speak to?

Consumer and Patient Experience team

E-mail: NSLHD-ThePatientExperience@health.nsw.gov.au​

Consumer and Patient Experience Manager

Phone: (02) 9462 9698