Womens Health Business Case Report

However, these sources of funding and support are predominantly short-term or one-off, or come with restrictive eligibility criteria that does not allow for delivery of the integrated, social health care service model that Women’s Health Centres offer. Crucially, while the Women’s Health ProgramMAG has not kept pace with structural changes, other short-term and one-off funding available to Women’s Health Centres is also highly restrictive and insufficient to sustain the ongoing operations of Women’s Health Centres. 2.1.3 Urgent Need for Investment in the Women’s Health Program The Women’s Health sector as a whole is no longer sustainable under current arrangements and has now reached a crisis point. NSW Health reports that, under current conditions, activity in the health sector is expected to double over the next decade 2 . Despite this rapidly growing need for health services, and NSW Government policy priorities to enhance community-based health care, Women’s Health Centres are being forced to make skilled mental health, clinical and health education staff redundant. At least three quarters of Women’s Health Centres currently have unsustainable operating deficits associated with the Women’s Health Program. Our analysis found that total immediate deficits are equivalent to 37% of current Women’s Health Program funding for these centres.

The deficits reflect the gap between 2022-23 Women’s Health Program funding and baseline staff structure – including both direct delivery and support staff - required to deliver the core services and meet targets set by Local Health Districts. This year Centres are seeking to cover deficits by: • making skilled clinical and health education staff redundant • leaving critical positions vacant • attempting to attract additional donations and fundraising • drawing down on limited reserves These deficits are not sustainable. Without the base level of additional investment proposed in this Business Case, many Women’s Health Centres will be forced to close in the next 2 years, or reduce services to a point where there is no capacity to deliver Women’s Health Program outcomes. This Business Case presents a detailed proposal for increased investment to ensure the sustainability of the Women’s Health Program and the well-established, community-based Women’s Health Centre infrastructure.

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Women’s Health NSW – October 2022