The Community Advisory Committee (CAC) is the group established to provide direction and leadership to increase community and consumer involvement at Ballarat Health Services. The CAC also has an important role in advocating to the Board of Management on behalf of the community, consumers and carers. The committee brings a community perspective to the development of priority areas and key issues to strengthen and make effective consumer and community participation at all levels of service planning and delivery.
Ballarat Health Services aims to meet the needs of its community and takes seriously the responsibility under the Health Services Act to ensure effective community participation.
The CAC was first established at BHS in mid 2005 and it has grown and developed in its role and achievements in this time
Who is the BHS Community Advisory Committee?
There are currently 11 members of BHS CAC including community, board and staff members.
What has the CAC achieved?
The CAC has been involved in:
Development of the Consumer Participation Policy which underpins consumer involvement at BHS
Implementation of the BHS Community Participation Plan
Participation in the preparation of the Quality of Care Reports
Consumer Participation Service Reviews with various BHS services and programs. This involves meeting with clinical teams and talking through the ways they work with their patients in order to identify the ways in which they are doing this well and offering suggestions for improvement.
Giving the consumer and community perspective on drafts of a new patient information booklet,Going to hospital: A practical guide to ensure it is as user friendly and helpful as possible
Providing feedback to BHS
Patients and other consumers of BHS may express any compliments, concerns, complaints or suggestions arising from their treatment without fear of discrimination. Please refer to the BHS Your Feedback Counts add link to document brochure which is displayed prominently throughout the health service.
Patients are also invited to provide feedback about their hospital stay through a Consumer Feedback Survey when they leave the hospital.
BHS participates in the Victorian Patient Satisfaction Monitor, a patient satisfaction survey run state-wide by the Department of Human Services. The results of this postal survey sent to a sample of BHS patients twice a year is compared with other similar hospitals and provides valuable insights.
BHS incorporates consumer feedback and community views from all of the ways in which they are received into our quality improvement processes.
More information about consumer involvement at BHS
For more information on the CAC or consumer and community involvement at BHS, ways that you can work with the CAC or how you can be involved at BHS, please contact the CAC Resource Officer in the Quality Governance and Risk Mangement Unit
Phone: 03 5320 4014.
For further information
The following sites contain further information about community and consumer participation.
