Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health

Review of Statewide Clinical Network Model

27 Nov 2025

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 Resistance
  • 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. 

They are time-lim­it­ed groups includ­ing a Clin­i­cal Lead, health pro­fes­sion­als, con­sumers and oth­er sub­ject mat­ter experts which will deliv­er high impact ini­tia­tives aligned with sys­tem priorities. 

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: Project TBD 

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.

Stay tuned for more updates and infor­ma­tion in 2026.