Review of Statewide Clinical Network Model

Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­works (SCNs) are cen­tral to advanc­ing clin­i­cal excel­lence and col­lab­o­ra­tion across South Australia’s health system. 

In 2025, the CEIH reviewed how the SCN’s oper­ate to ensure they con­tin­ue to sup­port clin­i­cian and con­sumer engage­ment, improve clin­i­cal excel­lence and reflect cur­rent health sys­tem priorities.

Fol­low­ing con­sul­ta­tion, the oper­at­ing mod­el has been refreshed and intro­duces two main changes: 

1) Expand­ing the num­ber of SCNs host­ed by the CEIH from 8 to 12 (note: some titles to be determined). 

In 2026, these will be:

• Chron­ic Pain
• Ado­les­cent Tran­si­tion Care
• Car­diac Care
• Stroke
• Trau­ma
• Renal
• Children’s Health
• Obstetric/Gynae/Women’s Health
• Pri­ma­ry Care
• Old­er People
• Antimi­cro­bial Stewardship
• Sur­gi­cal and Peri-oper­a­tive Care (on hold for 12 months while the Planned Surgery Reform Strat­e­gy is imple­ment­ed, led by the Dept for Health & Wellbeing)

The SCN’s with their Clin­i­cal Lead will con­tin­ue to con­nect groups of health pro­fes­sion­als, con­sumers and oth­er sub­ject mat­ter experts to col­lab­o­rate and lead change, improv­ing out­comes in spe­cif­ic areas of healthcare.

2) Intro­duc­ing 3 new Pri­or­i­ty Focus Areas (PFAs)

The PFAs have been endorsed by the Health Chief Exec­u­tives’ Coun­cil (HCEC) and its Clin­i­cal Coun­cil — the peak statewide clin­i­cian engage­ment body. 

PFAs bring togeth­er clin­i­cians, con­sumers and oth­er sub­ject mat­ter experts. They focus on deliv­er­ing high-impact ini­tia­tives aligned with sys­tem pri­or­i­ties and pro­vide a struc­tured way to bring peo­ple togeth­er around a spe­cif­ic sys­tem pri­or­i­ty for a set peri­od. PFAs sit along­side the Statewide Clin­i­cal Networks. 

The first PFAs and their projects are: 

• Data dri­ven clin­i­cal deci­sion mak­ing: Clin­i­cal Reg­istries project
• Clin­i­cal excel­lence and safe­ty: Sep­sis Improve­ment project
• Equi­table access to qual­i­ty health­care: Rheumat­ic Fever project 

This refreshed mod­el builds on the strong foun­da­tion of our exist­ing net­works. To every­one who has been involved in CEIH’s Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­works, thank you for your com­mit­ment to excel­lence and patient-cen­tred care.

Expres­sions of inter­est open­ing soon

The CEIH will soon invite expres­sions of inter­est for Clin­i­cal Leads and Expert Advi­so­ry Group mem­bers for the Sep­sis and Clin­i­cal Reg­istries PFA projects.

These roles are an oppor­tu­ni­ty for clin­i­cians, con­sumers and sub­ject mat­ter experts to help dri­ve pri­or­i­ty improve­ment work across the health system.

Stay tuned for fur­ther updates in 2026.

Con­tact us at ceih@​sa.​gov.​au for more information. 

Last updat­ed: 29 Jan­u­ary 2026.