Would you believe it? It’s now May, we’re well into the year and IFIC Australia (IFICA) is moving ahead at a steady pace.
An increasing number of organisations are looking to affiliate and partner with us, joining the growing ranks of the SW Sydney LHD and PHN, Western Sydney PHN and LHD (see below), North Coast PHN and Centre for Health Knowledge and Innovation, Central Coast LHD, NSW Agency for Innovation (ACI), Children’s Health Queensland and the Mater Research Institute – University of Queensland Centre for Health System Reform and Integration.
In a great meeting and ceremony held at the Price Waterhouse offices on the 21st March the Western Sydney Local Health District joined IFICA as Partners, while exploratory meetings have also been held with the BUPA Foundation and interest has been shown by other LHDs and key academic and service organisations. It is very exciting to see our work progress with so many fine organisations and, as ever, we look forward to providing attention and continued support to our current partners.
A lively Partners’ meeting was held on the 20th March. The aim of the meeting was to lay a foundation for a work plan for the rest of the year. This will focus on identifying key integrated care projects being undertaken by partner organisations, their objectives and progress, and strategies for partners working together. This work will be linked to the mapping of integrated care initiatives elsewhere
The afternoon saw Nick Goodwin lead a workshop on “Assessment frameworks for Integrated Care” at the NSW Parliament House, while on the 21-23 March we supported our partners, the Mater Research Institute, in its highly successful staging of the 4th International Health Care Reform Conference in Sydney.
To conclude events, in what was a great and busy March, we hosted a very greatly appreciated Summer School at Kingscliff, NSW, from the 25th to 29th March, which was run by Nick Goodwin, Viktoria Stein and David Perkins
Given my experience in Oxford at the summer School I know what a wonderful event it is to participate in.
Best wishes to you all and don’t forget if you wish to make contact on any matter relating to the Partners group my email is peter.mcgeorge@gmail.com
Look forward to catching up with you all next quarter.
Peter McGeorge
Chairman
IFIC Australia