I have just had the pleasure of the company of many of the PHN’s thought-leaders at the National PHN Commissioning Showcase which was held at the stunning location of the Merewether Surf House in Newcastle.
Presenters had to compete with a backdrop of spectacular surf and dolphins circling the many surfers (at least we think they were dolphins!).
Capably facilitated by consultant Jay Rebbeck we challenged each others thinking and jointly explored our progress in health service commissioning including co-design.
Key note speaker Derek Felton, with a rich experience in commissioning with the UK NHS, challenged us to think about the language that we are using about commissioning in Australia.
He likened “Outcomes Based Commissioning” to “Feet-based Walking” “Of course we commission for outcomes !” he gently chided us,
He also said another pet hate was the term Integrated Care, “It’s just care……. care that is not naturally integrated is not care at all”
Afterwards I chatted to him about our preoccupation with the term “gaps”. He agreed that a fixation on gap-filling might lead us to the miss the point. Our role is to transform the system not plug holes created by arrangements that are increasingly out-of-step with changing community needs. Yes- back to the ‘feet-based walking’ metaphor.
A big shout out to the PHN’s convening the showcase especially Hunter New England for hosting this event.
Check out some of the other blog posts on the home page inspired by the insights from the 2018 Showcase
phnchannel.blog 