The Sunraysia Community Health Service has been recognised for its outstanding service to the Sunraysia community at the 2009 Victorian Public Healthcare Awards.
Candy Broad, Member for Northern Victoria Region, congratulated the Sunraysia Community Health Service for winning the Primary Health Service of the Year Award at a ceremony on Thursday September 10th in Melbourne.
“The Sunraysia Community Health Service perform outstanding work ensuring that Victorians are able to access the care that they need,” Ms Broad said.
“The community is proud of the Sunraysia Community Health Service receiving this award, which is an important recognition of the efforts of the many people involved with this organisation,” Ms Broad said.
Sunraysia Community Health Service has been providing primary health care to the district of Mildura, northwest Victoria, for over 30 years. They offer over 55 services from a total of six sites, with an operating budget of around $10 million. The staff of over 120 provide home nursing, palliative care, aged care assessment, community dental, diabetes management, well women’s, allied health, aged care and disability services, counselling/mental health, drug treatment, health promotion and screening, and chronic disease management.
Ms Broad said that the Brumby Labor Government was taking action to support the Sunraysia Community Health Service and other health services in the region to improve the health care services available to the community.
Premier John Brumby and Health Minister Daniel Andrews presented awards to winners in 17 categories. Other major winners in 2009 include:
* Peninsula Health – Metropolitan health service of the year:
* West Gippsland Healthcare Group – Regional health service of the year;
* Kyabram & District Health Services – Rural health service of the year; and
“The Victorian Government is taking action to build a better health system with more doctors, nurses and new hospitals,” Mr Brumby said.
“Now in their fifth year, these awards recognise the fantastic work of our doctors, nurses and other health professionals and provide a great opportunity to celebrate quality, innovation and excellence in our public health system.
“The awards not only recognise the very best in our healthcare system, they also focus on new work that is tackling our toughest healthcare needs.
“We need to advance the fight against cancer – the biggest killer in Victoria – and tackle chronic disease through prevention, early intervention and ongoing care management.
“I would like to congratulate the talented, determined health professionals who are working hard to constantly improve Victoria’s health system.”
Mr Brumby said the awards presented an opportunity to reflect on the healthcare sector’s tremendous response to the Black Saturday bushfires in February.
“Those who provided the front line response - the mental heath and primary care teams, the burns units, emergency departments, and the health services who supported the affected regions - delivered outstanding care in extreme circumstances, and I cannot commend them enough for their courage and commitment,” he said.
Mr Andrews said the Victorian Public Healthcare Awards were established in 2005 to celebrate the diverse ways in which excellent public healthcare is achieved and recognise the individuals, teams and services committed to finding better ways of providing care.
“We received an inspiring range of entries from all parts of Victoria’s public health and healthcare system and I experienced first-hand the difficulty in selecting the winners,” Mr Andrews said.