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Media

The Far West LHD Media Unit is responsible for all media inquiries and interviews with Far West LHD staff members. The Unit regularly advises on major public health issues and disease outbreaks, through media releases, media conferences and, sometimes, special telephone hotlines.

Contact us

The Media Officer for Far West LHD is Branko Licul on 0411 119 592 or email branko.licul@health.nsw.gov.au

The Media Unit is the primary point of contact for news organisations. All media enquiries must come through the Media Unit in the first instance. This includes:

  • Requests for interviews
  • Photo requests of staff, patients or our facilities
  • General enquiries about health issues
  • Any condition updates on patients who have been injured in an accident or are otherwise of interest to the media

Please do not call our hospitals directly as they are not allowed to provide this information.

Staff are not permitted to speak to journalists or representatives of media organisations without the knowledge or permission of the Media Officer.

An On-Call Media Officer is available after normal business hours to assist media with urgent enquiries. This is organised on a roster basis and the correct person to contact is available via a voicemail message on 0411 119 592.

 

 

 

 




View Far West LHD Media Releases for

<< The archived Media Releases from the Greater Western AHS can be accessed here >>





10 August 2018

Far West Lhd Health InNovation Awards Winners For 2018


The Direct Access Colonoscopy Clinic Far West LHD (DACC) project which has helped reduced waiting times for colonoscopy procedures in the Far West has won the 2018 Far West LHD Health Innovation Award – Phoenix (Large Project) Category.

The project was presented by Kellie Hammond, DACC Nurse Consultant/Project Officer. DACC aimed to fast track people from Faecal Occult Blood Tests (FOBT) screening through to investigation and treatment without unnecessary delays and has been instrumental in reducing waiting times from screening results to undergoing a colonoscopy.

The Ninja (Small Project) Category was won by CRAE ‘Centralised Remote Area Education and presented by Lhy Smith, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Education. This program provided a sustainable, contextual and multi-disciplinary platform for regular in-service education for rural and remote clinicians in Far West LHD.

The Direct Access Colonoscopy Clinic also won the Agency for Clinical Innovation Award. The award was presented by Rachael Havrlant from the ACI. This project was judged on its ability to challenge traditional practices and adopting a service redesign approach to fast tracking patients based on positive occult blood test and ranking referrals based on symptoms. The introduction of triage clinics has reduced the wait time from over one year to 30 days for patients to see visiting Gastroenterologists and has streamlined colonoscopy management.

The People’s Choice was awarded to ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow: Living Well in the MPS Collaborative”. The award was presented by FWLHD Director of Medical Services, Dr Andre Nel. The project was presented by Pat Croft, Health Service Manager, Balranald MPS. The aim of this project was to embrace opportunities to explore ways for residents in MPS’s to feel like they are living in their own homes, not patients in hospital.

The FWLHD Health Innovation Awards recognise the excellent work of clinicians, staff and service partners to improve patient safety, clinical quality and health system performance across the Local Health District.

“On behalf of the health service, I wish to congratulate all the award winners, the finalists and all the nominees,” said Mr Ken Barnett, Acting Chief Executive, Far West LHD.

“All of the nominees into this year’s awards have shown a commitment to improving the way services are delivered, which continues to make things better for our consumers and staff”, said Mr Barnett.

He said the Far West LHD was proud of the innovative work being done across the LHD and that staff were working hard to improve services and ultimately health outcomes for consumers.

Mr Barnett added the smaller project category (Ninja) was introduced to the awards last year and has proven to be popular. “It highlights that improvements to our services continue on a day-to day basis and continually in response to changing circumstances and issues affect services and consumers.”

All the finalists will be entered into the NSW Health Awards to be held in Sydney on 5 November 2018.