Director Community Care Samantha Park.
INPUT from the Corner Inlet district community is always welcome at the now quarterly meetings of the South Gippsland Hospital (SGH) Aged Care Consumer Advisory Group.
Guided by SGH Director Community Care Samantha Park and Quality and Risk Manager Jackie Goodman, the Group’s second meeting for 2024 was held in the Banksia Centre’s dining room on Friday, May 24.
“The information and the various points of view we receive from the Aged Care Consumer Advisory Group certainly can shape the way our services are run,” Samantha told the gathering.
“The purpose of this Consumer Advisory Group is to obtain feedback, with the aim of improving our Aged Care services, which then goes directly to the SGH Board of Management to consider,” she said.
“The Group’s meetings give local people who use our aged care support and allied health services, and those who help a relative or friend to do so, a way to talk about care and service quality with other consumers and to share what they think with us.”
Samantha summarised SGH’s full range of health services, which includes Acute Care, Surgical, Maternity, and Community Care, with the latter offering the services specifically intended for older community members and relevant to the Group.
Among these are the Positive Ageing Service, Home Care Packages, Senior Day Respite, the Transition Care Program, District Nursing Services and help with negotiating the Federal Government’s My Aged Care system, alongside SGH’s Allied Health services.
“The people who attended the first meeting of the Aged Care Consumer Advisory Group in March of this year told us that they appreciated the opportunity to feed into local aged care services in an informal, relaxed atmosphere,” Samantha said.
“We also found out at that meeting just how important it is to speak clearly when communicating with our seniors!” both Samantha and Jackie agreed.
“it’s great to hear suggestions for improvement, and also where we are hitting the mark,” they said.
“The responses we get from the Consumer Advisory Group really do assist us as SGH’s service providers because we can learn first-hand how effective our services are,” Samantha said
“We’re always seeking to make the services that we offer better as well as expanding their reach, and the best way to find out what might be needed is to ask the people who use them.”
One participant at the May meeting of the Aged Care Consumer Advisory Group expressed their gladness at the chance to find out what local services are available that will help in a meaningful and practical way while growing older.
Samantha and Jackie extended an invitation to the broader Corner Inlet district community to attend a free information session on the SGH’s aged care services at the Sandy Point Community Centre on Thursday June 20, 2024 from 10.30 am to 12 noon, with morning tea provided.
For more information about the SGH Aged Care Consumer Advisory Group, and to RSVP for the Aged Care Information Session at Sandy Point contact South Gippsland Hospital in Foster on 5683 9777 or via email to [email protected]
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