2001-02 Annual Report - Sydney Local Health District - NSW ...

South Western Sydney Area Health Service Annual Report 2001/2002O u r C h a l l e n g e sKey Challenge 1:Working with our community and staff to develop a shared sense of responsibilityand direction.Key Challenge 2:Working in partnership with other agencies to improve health.Key Challenge 3:Ensuring that people in South Western Sydney access health services accordingto need.Key Challenge 4:Making the best use of, and fairly allocating, existing and new resources.Key Challenge 5:Developing effective and efficient health services which focus on improved healthoutcomes.Key Challenge 6:Attracting, developing and retaining the best staff.Key y Challenge 7:Becoming a learning and teaching organisation.C o m p l a i n t sSouth Western Sydney Area Health Service resolved 1434 complaints during the year.The most common complaints are about accessibility of services, followed by treatmentprovided and communication.Complaint levels appear to have risen over the previous two years. This rise actuallyreflects a more efficient complaint reporting process adopted across South WesternSydney Area Health Service. In turn, this process has officially recorded and responded tomore complaints than were previously.The most common ways of resolving complaints were to provide an explanation, to provideanother service or to apologise to the person making the complaint.Follow-up action taken included staff training and education, changes to the environmentin which the service was provided, changes to processes and procedures and, in somecases, changes to policy or formal review.19