Meet our new Primary Care Clinical Lead: Dr Penny Need

We recent­ly wel­comed Dr Pen­ny Need as the Clin­i­cal Lead for the Pri­ma­ry Care Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work (SCN). As a spe­cial­ist gen­er­al prac­ti­tion­er, med­ical edu­ca­tor and clin­i­cal leader, Dr Need brings exten­sive expe­ri­ence across clin­i­cal prac­tice, edu­ca­tion, gov­er­nance and health sys­tem leadership.

Pri­ma­ry care plays a vital role in keep­ing South Aus­tralians well and con­nect­ed to the care they need.

The Pri­ma­ry Care SCN brings togeth­er pri­ma­ry care clin­i­cians, lived expe­ri­ence part­ners and SA Health rep­re­sen­ta­tives to strength­en con­nec­tions between pri­ma­ry care and South Australia’s broad­er health system.

In this Q&A, Dr Need shares what dri­ves her work in pri­ma­ry care and where she sees oppor­tu­ni­ties to build a more con­nect­ed health sys­tem for South Australia.

Could you tell us a bit about your­self and what drew you to this area of work?

I’m a spe­cial­ist Gen­er­al Prac­ti­tion­er (GP) and Prac­tice Part­ner at Pio­neer Med­ical Cen­tre in Ade­laide’s north­east, as well as Deputy Direc­tor of Train­ing for the Roy­al Aus­tralian Col­lege of Gen­er­al Prac­ti­tion­ers (RACGP) South Aus­tralia and Deputy Chair of RACGP SA Council.

What I’ve always loved about gen­er­al prac­tice is the rela­tion­ships we build with patients and fam­i­lies, often over many years, and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to make a real dif­fer­ence in peo­ple’s lives. 

Why does pri­ma­ry care mat­ter right now in South Australia?

Pri­ma­ry care is the foun­da­tion of our health sys­tem. It’s where most peo­ple first seek care, where chron­ic con­di­tions are man­aged, and where pre­ven­tion and ear­ly inter­ven­tion can make an enor­mous difference.

In South Aus­tralia, we’re fac­ing increas­ing demand on our health ser­vices, an age­ing pop­u­la­tion and grow­ing com­plex­i­ty in the care peo­ple need.

Strong, acces­si­ble pri­ma­ry care is essen­tial if we’re going to meet those chal­lenges. It’s not just about reduc­ing pres­sure on hos­pi­tals, although that’s impor­tant. It’s about mak­ing sure peo­ple receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time, and ide­al­ly from some­one who knows them and their famil­ial context.

What is the key chal­lenge or oppor­tu­ni­ty for improv­ing pri­ma­ry care across the SA health system?

For me, one of the biggest oppor­tu­ni­ties is improv­ing how pri­ma­ry care and the rest of the health sys­tem work togeth­er. We have incred­i­bly ded­i­cat­ed clin­i­cians work­ing across gen­er­al prac­tice, hos­pi­tals and com­mu­ni­ty health ser­vices, but too often we’re work­ing in sep­a­rate parts of the system.

I think we need to move away from think­ing about pri­ma­ry care and hos­pi­tals as sep­a­rate ser­vices and towards a gen­uine­ly con­nect­ed health sys­tem. That means involv­ing GPs and oth­er pri­ma­ry care clin­i­cians in plan­ning and deci­sion-mak­ing from the begin­ning, rather than con­sult­ing them once deci­sions have already been made. Even rel­a­tive­ly small improve­ments in how we com­mu­ni­cate and coor­di­nate care can make a sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence for both patients and clinicians.

What moti­vat­ed you to take on this Clin­i­cal Lead role?

I’ve always been pas­sion­ate about advo­cat­ing for gen­er­al prac­tice. I see first­hand the chal­lenges our patients and prac­tices face. I’ve also had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work with a wide range of clin­i­cians, organ­i­sa­tions and health ser­vice leaders.

This role felt like a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to bring those per­spec­tives togeth­er and con­tribute to mean­ing­ful, prac­ti­cal improve­ments across the South Aus­tralian health system.

I’m par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ed in help­ing ensure that pri­ma­ry care has a strong voice in shap­ing deci­sions that affect how health­care is delivered.

How will you approach lead­ing this work?

My approach will be very much about lis­ten­ing, build­ing rela­tion­ships and bring­ing peo­ple together.

There is an enor­mous amount of knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence with­in the Pri­ma­ry Care SCN, and I see my role as help­ing har­ness that exper­tise, iden­ti­fy shared pri­or­i­ties and turn good ideas into prac­ti­cal outcomes.

I’m also keen to ensure we hear from a broad range of voic­es, includ­ing clin­i­cians work­ing in dif­fer­ent set­tings and com­mu­ni­ties across South Australia.

Ulti­mate­ly, I’d like the net­work to be a place where peo­ple feel their con­tri­bu­tions are val­ued, where we can have open and con­struc­tive con­ver­sa­tions, and where our work leads to mean­ing­ful change.