I am incredibly proud to share our first-ever digital, interactive Annual Review, ‘Evolution’. It is amazing to reflect on the past year and see how much we have grown as an organisation. Growth of WentWest staff, as we have taken on new challenges, but also the growth of our partnerships and the number of commissioning providers we collaboratively work with to transform primary care in our region.
This year, we almost doubled the number of commissioning contracts. We are proud that these 470 contracts are supporting quality local care providers, including 111 psychologists under our Primary Mental Health Care program, 74 non-government-organisation contracts, four Urgent Care Service centres, 325 Strengthening Medicare Grants, 44 Residential Aged Care Facility (RACF) grants, three wellbeing and resilience grants and 109 Living with COVID and Vulnerable Vaccinations contracts. Of the $50 million that we have invested into supporting these providers, close to $2 million went towards providing mental health care to over 9,000 Western Sydney community members. More than ever, we are seeing community members presenting with complex, co-existing co-morbidities, and our Commissioning team have worked closely with our providers to create community co-designed programs that deliver holistic, multi-sectoral care for people of all backgrounds.
One of our multi-agency partnerships, the Kids Early Years (KEYS) Network, has provided wraparound support for over 2,355 individuals since it launched in September 2021. In collaboration with the Western Sydney Local Health District, under our Western Sydney Care Collective (WSCC) initiative, 2,144 patients were provided urgent care treatment at our four Urgent Care Services. Almost half of these patients were children who avoided a trip to the Emergency Department because of the community-based care they received at a local Urgent Care Service. Another of our WSCC pathways of care, Cardiology in Community, has been rolled out across 24 Patient Centred Medical Home (PCMH) practices in Western Sydney to improve the detection of early atrial fibrillation.
Our Primary Care Transformation and Integration team has provided support to 340 general practices over the past twelve months, with 83% of Practice Managers in our annual survey rating the support received in improving their practice systems as high or very high quality.
It is incredible to see such positive figures and a continued focus on quality improvement in light of such dramatic service expansion, and it is a real testament to our staff who, despite the rising number of programs and partners we engage with, have continued to provide quality support for the benefit of the Western Sydney community. This shared vision for a healthier Western Sydney is what drives us, and 97% of staff believe that we are “innovative, progressive, pro-active and dynamic” in our purpose.
There are no words to express my gratitude to ‘WentWesters’ and our growing WentWest family for their determination over the past year. Their open-minded, agile attitudes have helped us evolve as an organisation and impact more lives than we ever imagined. The data and stories in this report demonstrate our focus on equity and our conscious shift toward proactively addressing the social determinants of health.
Thank you to the Senior Management Team for your agility, dynamism and energy to deliver remarkable outcomes and reforms. Thank you to the Board for their strategic vision, passion and guidance. In particular, thank you to Professor Di O’Halloran as the Chair for her advice, support and strategic insights. What a year it has been!
Ray Messom, CEO of WentWest
9 November 2023