Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health

HCEC Clinical Council

The HCEC Clinical Council guides improvements and innovation in patient care across South Australia.

About the HCEC Clin­i­cal Council

The Clin­i­cal Coun­cil is a sub-com­mit­tee of the Health Chief Exec­u­tives’ Coun­cil (HCEC), which helps shape safer, more effec­tive and equi­table health­care for South Australians.

As the state’s peak clin­i­cal advi­so­ry body, the Clin­i­cal Coun­cil brings togeth­er clin­i­cal experts, con­sumers and health sys­tem lead­ers to pro­vide lead­er­ship and advice on major health­care issues and sys­tem improvements.

It sup­ports col­lab­o­ra­tion across the CEIH’s Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­works and Pri­or­i­ty Focus Areas, as well as Local Health Net­works and the Depart­ment for Health and Well­be­ing (DHW).

Role of the Clin­i­cal Council

The Clin­i­cal Coun­cil pro­vides strate­gic advice on sig­nif­i­cant clin­i­cal issues, emerg­ing chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties for health sys­tem improvement.

Mem­bers pro­vide clin­i­cal and con­sumer advice to sup­port improve­ment in:

  • qual­i­ty and safety
  • access and equity
  • patient out­comes and experiences
  • work­force capa­bil­i­ty and sustainability
  • ser­vice effi­cien­cy and innovation
  • clin­i­cal gov­er­nance and accountability.

What the Clin­i­cal Coun­cil does

The Clin­i­cal Coun­cil reviews and dis­cuss­es statewide health issues, includ­ing mod­els of care, clin­i­cal ini­tia­tives and pro­posed changes to patient care.

Rec­om­men­da­tions from these dis­cus­sions may be pro­gressed to HCEC for con­sid­er­a­tion, ensur­ing statewide deci­sion-mak­ing is informed by clin­i­cal exper­tise, con­sumer expe­ri­ence and health sys­tem insights.

The Clin­i­cal Coun­cil also holds work­shops and strate­gic dis­cus­sions on emerg­ing health­care issues, which bring togeth­er Clin­i­cal Coun­cil mem­bers and oth­er clin­i­cal, con­sumer and exec­u­tive lead­ers. This includes rep­re­sen­ta­tives from DHW, Pre­ven­tive Health SA, SA Ambu­lance Ser­vice, Dig­i­tal Health, and pri­ma­ry, allied and com­mu­ni­ty health services.

Togeth­er, they explore chal­lenges, share insights and iden­ti­fy oppor­tu­ni­ties for health sys­tem improvements.

Recent work

The Clin­i­cal Coun­cil has recent­ly pro­vid­ed advice on and endorsed: 

  • statewide antimi­cro­bial stew­ard­ship gov­er­nance arrangements 
  • the SA chron­ic heart fail­ure man­age­ment mod­el of care.
HCEC Clinical Council Members
Andrew BerstenExec­u­tive Direc­tor of Research, SALHN
Belin­da MaierDirec­tor of Mid­wifery, LCLHN
Chris­tine BurdeniukSenior Staff Car­di­ol­o­gist, SALHN
Daniel Ellis
Direc­tor, Trau­ma Ser­vice, CALHN
Daniel Haustead
Sys­tems Clin­i­cal Lead, Ramp­ing and Flow, DHW
Dim­i­tria Simatos
Con­sul­tant Pae­di­a­tri­cian, NALHN
Ingrid Lensink
Chief Allied and Sci­en­tif­ic Health Offi­cer, DHW
Jem­ma Anderson
Staff Spe­cial­ist and Med­ical Unit Head, Ado­les­cent Ward, Wom­en’s and Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal, WCHN
Jen­na Paterson
Gen­er­al and Acute Care Med­i­cine Adult Physi­cian, NALHN
John Widger
Med­ical Direc­tor, Divi­sion of Pae­di­atric Med­i­cine, WCHN
Karen Puvo­gel
Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, NALHN
Karen Van Gorp
Con­sumer Representative
Kei­th McNeil
Com­mis­sion­er, CEIH
Kurt Tow­ers
Chief Abo­rig­i­nal Health Offi­cer, DHW
Maryellen Dean
Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Nurs­ing and Mid­wifery, SALHN
Melis­sa Koch
Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Com­mu­ni­ty and Allied Health, YNLHN
Michael Osborn
Chief Can­cer Offi­cer, WCHN
Morg­yn Warner
Con­sul­tant Micro­bi­ol­o­gist & Infec­tious Dis­eases Physi­cian, SCSS
Nicole Kel­lyNurs­ing Ser­vice Direc­tor Trau­ma, CALHN
Pen­ny NeedGen­er­al Prac­ti­tion­er & Senior Med­ical Edu­ca­tor, RACGP
Rebec­ca GrahamChief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, WCHN
Rob ElliottChief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, SAAS
Sal­ly JohnsCon­sul­tant Geri­a­tri­cian, NALHN
Sharon Mor­tonEDMS, BHFL­HN
Sharyn ColesCon­sumer Representative
Stephen McDon­aldSenior Staff Nephrol­o­gist & Direc­tor Ade­laide Epi­Cen­tre, CALHN
Tim­o­thy KleinigMed­ical Direc­tor, Neu­ro­sciences and Reha­bil­i­ta­tion, CALHN
Key documents and resources

Related News

HCEC Clinical Council Update

The Clin­i­cal Coun­cil has held two forums to date to pro­vide advice and rec­om­men­da­tions on improv­ing health­care in SA. The forums were Reg­istries in the 21st Cen­tu­ry and Work­force Sus­tain­abil­i­ty – The Role of the Clin­i­cal Leader.

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