NSW Health WSLHD Safety & Quality Account 2020-21

WSLHD Safety & Quality Account 2021-2022

Foreword

Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD) works in partnership with the community to ensure our patients receive safe, equitable and high-quality healthcare. The WSLHD Safety and Quality Account is a reflection of safety and quality in WSLHD, bringing together initiatives from across the district that are designed and implemented by our staff to meet the needs of our community and continually improve our services. Healthcare has faced significant challenges over the last 2 years due to COVID-19. Quality and safety performance has not been immune to these challenges. Globally, and across metropolitan Sydney, quality and safety performance has reflected the extraordinary challenges placed on the healthcare system. WSLHD has pivoted the way safety and quality is promoted, adopting the view that safety is everybody’s business. This new outlook is reflected in the way in which our staff have adapted and innovated during the COVID-19 pandemic. After a challenging year in testing and treating COVID-19 in 2020, staff from all corners of the organisation came together once again to roll out the COVID-19 vaccination program to continue to serve and protect our community. WSLHD was recognised across the state for designing the state’s largest vaccination centre at Qudos Bank Arena and commended for the design of sensory and culturally safe vaccination environments at Blacktown and Mount Druitt hospitals. Patient Experience is central to what we do. The theme for this year has been the power of storytelling which allows us listen and learn from the community to improve the way we deliver care. You will notice in this year’s account that our patient safety data is accompanied by consumer feedback. We have presented the data in this way to help us remember that there is a patient and a family behind the data and to ensure the patient is kept at the centre of all of the decisions we make as a district. Previously, WSLHD was guided by the Better West Strategic Priorities (2017-2021) whereby we achieved noteworthy results. Beginning in 2022, WSLHD will enter a new period of strategic direction, aligning with the NSW Future Health: Guiding the next decade in NSW 2022-2023 Strategic Framework: • Patients and carers have positive experience and outcomes that matter • Safe care is delivered across all settings • People are healthy and well • Our staff are engaged and well supported • Research and innovation, and digital advances inform service delivery • The health system is managed sustainably It is important to us that we provide an inclusive environment to achieve the health outcomes that matter most to every patient. The achievements outlined in this account highlight the extraordinary work our staff do every day and how they have come to grow, adapt and learn from another challenging year of the pandemic. I would like to thank each and every one of our staff for their commitment to improving the safety of our services and the quality of our care in Western Sydney.

GRAEME LOY CHIEF EXECUTIVE WESTERN SYDNEY LOCAL HEALTH DISTRICT

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