MDHS launches new vision for healthcare in the region

Today Maryborough District Health Service (MDHS) officially launched our strategic plan, marking a new era of innovative healthcare for Maryborough and the wider region.

In our 168-year history, few moments have been as critical as right now as we emerge from a pandemic and look ahead to the rest of the 21st Century.

The need for innovation in healthcare has never been more important we are thrilled to be launching our new strategic plan. This is not a one-dimensional document that gets pinned to a wall. This strategy is the basis of a powerful new story for Maryborough and the wider region.

To bring this story to life, we have listened deeply to our community and staff. Your voices are embedded in every page, as we move ahead with a $100 million redevelopment to create state-of-the-art facilities and improve access to GREAT healthcare for the wider community.

In the coming months, you will see many exciting developments at MDHS. Lighting the path for this transformation are our new vision, purpose, values and promise statements. What does this really mean?

Our vision is to change the healthcare story with our community.

In developing our strategic plan we sought and received feedback from 170 staff and more than 100 community members and worked with great care to embed this feedback in our plan.

While it’s not easy work, we are well-placed to tackle some of the longest-standing social and health challenges in our communities – to help change the story.

The once-in-a-generation investment of $100 million will enable us to work with our health and regional partners, patients and their carers to:

• Provide better access to the right treatment at the right time
• Ensure people feel safe and supported when using our services
• Help residents eat well and stay active, see less incidence of chronic diseases and live longer, happier and more connected lives
• Reduce the length of stay in hospital by getting clients back to health and home sooner.

Our purpose is to connect our community to GREAT healthcare.

Happy and healthy people make healthy communities.

At the heart of our new master plan and hospital rebuild is a commitment to taking a proactive role in taking healthcare to the community. You’ll see changes in how we deliver that care in many ways.

• Improving the patient and consumer experience by working with our community advisory communities, and listening and learning from patient stories to co-design solutions.
• Creating better connections between our three campuses in Maryborough, Avoca and Dunolly.
• Implementing a new midwife-led model of care in maternity services to improve outcomes for mothers and their babies in the region, and
• Forging deeper relationships with Orange Door network to provide vital face-to-face family violence support for women and families, and related services in partnership with the Centre for Non-Violence, Anglicare and the Bendigo District Aboriginal Collaborative, co-located at Maryborough Hospital.

The special sauce in this transformation is our extraordinary team. Many live in the area and are personally affected when a member of our community isn’t thriving. That means connecting GREAT healthcare to our community goes beyond being a simple statement to becoming a personal aspiration.

Our values

While it can seem easy enough to talk about why we want to deliver great care, and share what we want to achieve, our values sit at the heart of how we deliver that care.

When we talk about providing GREAT healthcare, this is a short-hand for our values:

G – stands for Genuine. This means that we will be consistently honest, trustworthy and accountable.

R – Respect. This is reflected in our behaviours, attitudes and words – always being fair, honest and caring to those we work with and come into contact with.

E – Excellence. Only the best by us will do, by achieving the highest standards of service and care.

A – Accountability. We consistently do what we say we are going to do by supporting and holding each other to account.

T – Togetherness. Working together to support common values and vision for shared goals.

We will ensure that every member of our team can translate these values into the way they support you – and each other – every day.

Our promise statements

We know it makes a world of difference to be treated with genuine care in those small moments, which can sometimes turn out to be very big or important.

We have put deep thought, and research, into the experience that we want our patients, carers and families to have when engaging with us at MDHS.

In addition to new infrastructure, partnerships and a strongly skilled team, we have developed four Promise Statements, which capture what we want you to be able to expect from every single interaction with the MDHS team, every single time.

Our promise statements are:

• Seeking to understand you as a person, not as a condition
• Caring for you with compassion and kindness
• Treating you fairly and respectfully, on every occasion
• Keeping you safe and informed with open and honest communication

We will continue to listen to you, and your family, as we bring this change to life.

Find out more

To be part of our evolving story, find out more about our strategic plan and the coming transformation, join us for a special online Community Conversation at join us for a special online Community Conversation from 7.00pm to 8.00pm on Monday 6 June.

This is your opportunity to find out more about our new strategic plan from CEO Nickola Allan and the Executive Team, with the chance to ask questions and share your ideas and feedback.

The information session will be broadcast live via our Facebook page @MaryboroughDistrictHealthService

We look forward to seeing you there.

CEO Nickola Allan

Maryborough District Health Service – Strategic Plan 2021 – 2025