Health service context
This page contains information about the NSW Health area service in which Bankstown GP Division is located.
Sydney South West Area Health Service (SSWAHS )is one of the most populous Area Health Services in the State.
SSWWAHS is funded by NSW Health to treat and care for patients in public hospitals and healthcare facilities from Balmain, through Bankstown to Bowral.
Several Divisions of General Practice are contained within the boundaries of SSWAHS. These include Bankstown GP Division, Central Sydney Division of General Practice, and Macarthur Division of General Practice.
Divisions are not funded by NSW Health, but collaborates closely with SSWAHS in a range of areas ranging from hospital discharge and admission, community health, mental health, Swine Flu, immunization, diabetes, women’s health, COPD, and other public health initiatives.
Facts about SSWAHS
- SSWAHS covers a land area of 6,380 square kilometers, across 15 local government areas with an estimated population of 1.3 million residents.
- SSWAHS is the most ethnically diverse AHS in Australia; 41% of the population speak a language other than English at home. In Bankstown and surrounding areas, the most common languages spoken are Arabic and Vietnamese.
- The Area’s population is also growing by around 20,000 births per annum, representing over 22 per cent of all births in NSW. SSWAHS contains areas with some of the highest fertility rates in the State, with some suburbs well above the State average of 1.79 births per woman, including Bankstown (2.15) Liverpool (2.12), Camden (2.11), Canterbury (2.08), and Wollondilly (2.07).
Strategic Direction:
SSWAHS has incorporated NSW Health’s vision Healthy People – Now and in the Future into its own strategic plan – A New Direction for Sydney South West Health Service Strategic Plan towards 2010.
The vision is underpinned by four goals and seven strategic directions. The four goals are:
- To keep people healthy, with a particular focus on prevention.
- To deliver high quality health services
- To provide the health care people need
- To manage health services well.
The seven strategic directions are:
- Make prevention everybody’s business
- Create better experiences for people using the health system
- Strengthen primary health and continuing care in the community
- Build regional and other partnerships for health
- Make smart choices about the costs and benefits of health services and health support services
- Build a sustainable health workforce
- Be ready for new risks and opportunities.
Relevant links
A New Direction for Sydney South West Health Service Strategic Plan towards 2010.
http://www.sswahs.nsw.gov.au/Publications/StrategicPlan.pdf
More information
Please contact the Division