Current Initiatives

• Ongoing support for members as state activity continues to fluctuate around border closures and elective surgery restrictions
• Timely distribution of critical updates from the various jurisdictions
• Continued contact jurisdictional Departments of Health regarding vaccination mandates for health workers
• COVID-19 Google Group has continued to provide valuable support amongst members on topics COVID and non-COVID related
• Chapters have embraced Zoom technology for their meetings which has enabled the CEO to attend all meetings and provide detailed updates to each State/Territory Chapter

PROSETHESES LIST REFORMS

• Submission provided to the Department of Health and Minister Hunt regarding the day hospitals response to the proposed reforms and the possible impacts of these reforms on the sector.
• Our submission is available on the website.
• Continued communication on this topic commenced in December 2020 and has continued throughout 2021.
• Actively participated in the Department meetings on the proposed reforms.
• Also contributed to special meetings relating to the General Miscellaneous category of the Prosetheses List and upon our request, data was provided specifically for the day hospital sector, separated from the overnight sector.
• Worked collaboratively with CPA and APHA in addressing the private sector’s concerns in relation to these reforms and especially the proposed time frame.
• Collaborated with CHA and APHA on joint correspondence rejecting the PHA’s alternative funding model.
• In discussions with many PHIs as to their arrangements for alternative funding models for items removed from the List.
• After reviewing the first 8 items to be removed from the list it was felt that there would be little impact on the sector.
• We await notification of further items to be removed.

ACCREDITATION

• DHA has been exploring alternative accreditation systems that may be more fit-for-purpose than the existing model and has included this as a core objective in the 2021/2024 Strategic Plan.
• The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Surgery, AAAHC participated in a panel discussion at our recent virtual conference.

NEW ALLIANCES

• ANZCA Perioperative Medicine Steering Committee
• DayCOR Registry – continued this relationship which commenced last year in support of important post anaesthetic data collection
• Federal AMA President, Omar Khorshid, meeting with the Board in June and participated in a Panel Discussion at the Conference
• IAAS membership now extended to 2 representatives from Day Hospitals Australia – Dr John Napoli and Jane Griffiths

STRATEGIC PLAN

• The Day Hospitals Australia Strategic Plan for 2021 – 2024 was developed by the Board and CEO under the guidance of an external facilitator and is available to members on the Governance & AGM Page.
• The new Strategic Plan is being presented by the CEO at the November round of Chapter meetings and is also available on the website.
• The Strategic Plan has been distributed to all stakeholders including, but not limited to, Federal Health Minister and Shadow Minister, DOH Officials, jurisdictional Governments and Departments of Health, Medical Colleges and Societies, the AMA, PHIs, Consumer groups etc.

NATIONAL CONFERENCE

• The Day Hospitals Australia National Conference 2021 took place online from 8 – 10 September 2021.
• Members who did not attend the Conference can still view the presentations by registering dayhospitalsaustraliaconference.com and this will be available until 17^th December.
• The post Conference delegate survey provided positive feedback with the following speakers particularly acknowledged Scott Anthony, Mike Hardie, Richard de Crespigny, Prof Doug McWhinnie and Dr Ian Jackson

ONGOING RELATIONSHIPS 

• The CEO is in regular contact with the Commonwealth Department of Health and Federal Minister for Health.
• There has been an expansion of collaborative relationships with the Department and its various divisions, particularly because of issues generated by the pandemic
• Throughout the year, the Board and CEO continued their discussions with various Private Health Insurers, medical organisations, state and territory Ministers for Health and other Private Hospital Organisations.