2020-21 Annual Report DHW

To:

Hon Stephen Wade MLC

Minister for Health and Wellbeing

This annual report will be presented to Parliament to meet the statutory reporting requirements of the Public Sector Act 2009, the Public Sector Regulations 2010, the Public Finance and Audit Act 1987 and the requirements of Premier and Cabinet Circular PC013 Annual Reporting.
This report is verified to be accurate for the purposes of annual reporting to the Parliament of South Australia.

Submitted on behalf of the Department for Health and Wellbeing by:

Dr Christopher McGowan
Chief Executive

From the Chief Executive

I am pleased to present the 2020-21 Annual Report for the Department for Health and Wellbeing (the department), South Australia.

The department, as system leader, is responsible for developing the vision, direction and long-term strategies to support delivery of high quality, public health services for all South Australians.

Throughout this year we have continued to face ongoing challenges which have emerged as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. I am proud of how the health system has adapted and responded to address these challenges. This has involved significant mobilisation of staff from across the department, Local Health Networks and from the public sector workforce more broadly, to focus our public health response on the ongoing management of COVID-19 and rollout of the vaccine. Over the last 12 months, we have achieved exceptional outcomes from our management of the pandemic and as a result, have had very low rates of community transmission across the state, contributing a strong level of community safety.

Whilst our response to COVID-19 has been the major priority for 2020-21, we are now experiencing unprecedented demands on our health system. These demands are consistent with what is being experienced in other jurisdictions and it is the role of the department as system leader to continue to build our future health system capabilities. The SA Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2020-2025 released in March 2020 continues to guide our investment in the right approaches, people, skills and opportunities. To support the future health and wellbeing of South Australians, the department will continue to promote collaborative work practices across the system to further enhance and build a flexible, sustainable, targeted, safe, high-quality, and value-based health system for our community.

Over the next 12 months, we will continue to embed strategies which drive investment, commissioning and funding decisions, and build the capabilities of an adaptable and agile workforce. We will ensure the consumer voice is heard and use our learnings to continue to drive innovation in service delivery, the use of technology, infrastructure and system improvements, to position our system to achieve our vision of South Australians experience the best health and wellbeing in Australia.

Dr Christopher McGowan
Chief Executive
Department for Health and Wellbeing