Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health

Primary Care Statewide Clinical Network

About the network

The Pri­ma­ry Care Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work (SCN) pro­vides lead­er­ship, advice and oppor­tu­ni­ties for col­lab­o­ra­tion to strength­en con­nec­tions between pri­ma­ry care and the broad­er health system.

We bring togeth­er pri­ma­ry care clin­i­cians, peo­ple with lived expe­ri­ence and SA Health rep­re­sen­ta­tives to iden­ti­fy pri­or­i­ties, share insights and work togeth­er on issues that affect pri­ma­ry care and patient care.

Our role

  • Con­nect pri­ma­ry care with oth­er parts of the health system.
  • Iden­ti­fy and advise on statewide pri­ma­ry care priorities.
  • Sup­port more inte­grat­ed, coor­di­nat­ed and per­son-cen­tred care across the health system.

Our focus

  • Improv­ing coor­di­na­tion between pri­ma­ry, sec­ondary and ter­tiary care.
  • Strength­en­ing clin­i­cal infor­ma­tion shar­ing and dig­i­tal integration.
  • Sup­port­ing con­nect­ed urgent care, after-hours care and emer­gency care pathways.
  • Advanc­ing shared care and inte­grat­ed mod­els of care.
  • Improv­ing access, equi­ty and health out­comes across met­ro­pol­i­tan, region­al and remote South Australia.

Our peo­ple

Dr Penny Need

Primary Care Statewide Clinical Network Clinical Lead

Senior Medical Educator and General Practitioner, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners

Dr Pen­ny Need is an expe­ri­enced spe­cial­ist Gen­er­al Prac­ti­tion­er, med­ical edu­ca­tor and clin­i­cal leader with a strong com­mit­ment to strength­en­ing pri­ma­ry care and improv­ing health out­comes for South Australians.

Pen­ny is a Prac­tice Part­ner at Pio­neer Med­ical Cen­tre in Tea Tree Gul­ly and cur­rent­ly serves as Deputy Direc­tor of Train­ing for the Roy­al Aus­tralian Col­lege of Gen­er­al Prac­ti­tion­ers (RACGP) in South Aus­tralia and Deputy Chair of the RACGP SA Council.

She brings exten­sive expe­ri­ence in clin­i­cal prac­tice, med­ical edu­ca­tion, gov­er­nance and health sys­tem lead­er­ship, hav­ing con­tributed to a range of pro­fes­sion­al organ­i­sa­tions, advi­so­ry groups and com­mit­tees across gen­er­al prac­tice and the broad­er health­care sector.

Pen­ny is pas­sion­ate about ensur­ing that pri­ma­ry care has a strong voice in health sys­tem plan­ning and deci­sion-mak­ing. She val­ues col­lab­o­ra­tion across dis­ci­plines and health­care set­tings and is par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ed in strength­en­ing the con­nec­tions between gen­er­al prac­tice, hos­pi­tals and com­mu­ni­ty health services.

Primary Care Statewide Clinical Network Membership

Clin­i­cal Lead: Dr Pen­ny Need | Senior Med­ical Edu­ca­tor and Gen­er­al Prac­ti­tion­er, Roy­al Aus­tralian Col­lege of Gen­er­al Practitioners 

Dr David Warhurst | Rur­al Gen­er­al­ist, Med­ical Edu­ca­tor and Clin­i­cian, Aus­tralian Col­lege of Rur­al and Remote Medicine 

Dr Andrew Kel­lie | Gen­er­al Prac­ti­tion­er, Researcher and Health Sys­tem Leader, Aus­tralian Med­ical Asso­ci­a­tion South Australia 

Dr John Williams | Imme­di­ate Past Pres­i­dent, Aus­tralian Med­ical Asso­ci­a­tion South Aus­tralia, and Gen­er­al Prac­ti­tion­er, Inves­ti­ga­tor Clin­ic, Port Lincoln

Dr Bill Gey­er | Pres­i­dent, Rur­al Doc­tors Asso­ci­a­tion of South Australia 

Dr Emi­ly Gib­son | GP Inte­gra­tion Offi­cer (GPIO), North­ern Ade­laide Local Health Net­work and Ade­laide Pri­ma­ry Health Network 

Dr Bri­an Kirk­by | Direc­tor of Surgery, Yorke and North­ern Local Health Network 

Sophie Piron | Busi­ness Man­ag­er, Ade­laide City Gen­er­al Prac­tice, Aus­tralian Asso­ci­a­tion of Prac­tice Man­age­ment Representative

Jane Bollen | Pri­ma­ry Health Care Nurse Con­sul­tant and Direc­tor, Bollen Health, Aus­tralian Pri­ma­ry Health Care Nurs­es Asso­ci­a­tion Representative

Lau­ren Fras­er | Senior Phar­ma­cist, Researcher and Vice Pres­i­dent, Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal Soci­ety of Aus­tralia South Australia/​Northern Territory 

Anto­nia Berkin­shaw | Direc­tor Strat­e­gy, Strat­e­gy and Gov­er­nance, Depart­ment for Health and Wellbeing 

Niamh Wade | Exec­u­tive Gen­er­al Man­ag­er, Ade­laide Pri­ma­ry Health Net­work (Non-clin­i­cal ex-offi­cio member)

Jacque­line Riv­ière | Lived Expe­ri­ence Partner 

Melis­sa Cad­zow | Lived Expe­ri­ence Partner


Our work

Primary Care Forum

Share insights and stay informed about pri­ma­ry care in South Australia.

Learn more
Key documents and resources

Get involved

To learn more or get involved in the Pri­ma­ry Care Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work, email CEIH.​PrimaryCare@​sa.​gov.​au.