FAQs about Statewide Clinical Networks

SCNs are cen­tral to advanc­ing clin­i­cal excel­lence and col­lab­o­ra­tion across South Australia’s health system.

SCNs bring togeth­er health pro­fes­sion­als, con­sumers and oth­er experts to lead change, solve com­plex prob­lems and improve out­comes in spe­cif­ic areas of health­care. Their work extends across the state and beyond SA Health.

Each SCN includes:

• a Clin­i­cal Lead
• around 10 – 18 rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers includ­ing con­sumers and oth­er stake­hold­ers list­ed below
• a CEIH Clin­i­cal Net­work Advi­sor and admin­is­tra­tive sup­port staff. 

Mem­ber­ship is designed to be diverse with rep­re­sen­ta­tion encour­aged from: 

• met­ro­pol­i­tan and region­al Local Health Networks
• a range of rel­e­vant health disciplines 
• con­sumers
• com­mu­ni­ty, pri­ma­ry, and acute care sectors
• Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander health­care workers
• Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander communities
• cul­tur­al­ly and lin­guis­ti­cal­ly diverse communities
• acad­e­mia and oth­er rel­e­vant exter­nal stakeholders.

Mem­bers are pas­sion­ate about the clin­i­cal spe­cial­ty, think strate­gi­cal­ly, com­mu­ni­cate effec­tive­ly and can influ­ence pos­i­tive change in ser­vice delivery.

Con­sumers are peo­ple who use or may use health­care services. 

A sup­port per­son pro­vides care or assis­tance with health­care ser­vices to some­one — such as a par­ent, part­ner, child or friend — who has a dis­abil­i­ty, chron­ic con­di­tion, frailty or men­tal illness. 

Con­sumers, sup­port per­sons and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers involved in an SCN are not cur­rent­ly work­ing, nor have pre­vi­ous­ly worked, as a health pro­fes­sion­al in the clin­i­cal area rel­e­vant to the network.

A clin­i­cian can be a med­ical offi­cer, nurs­e, allied and sci­en­tif­ic health pro­fes­sion­al or oth­er health pro­fes­sion­al who pro­vides care and sup­port to indi­vid­u­als receiv­ing care for the rel­e­vant clin­i­cal area. Clin­i­cians may work in pub­lic or pri­vate health across a range of settings. 

SCN mem­bers con­tribute to the devel­op­ment, imple­men­ta­tion, and eval­u­a­tion of the network’s activities.

They col­lect and share per­spec­tives from their peers, pro­vide feed­back to col­leagues and Local Health Net­work (LHN) lead­ers and help shape ini­tia­tives and pri­or­i­ties across the system.

Meet­ing fre­quen­cy is set by the SCN Lead, but month­ly meet­ings are pro­posed initially. 

Mem­bers may also be asked to:

• attend addi­tion­al forums or plan­ning sessions 
• par­tic­i­pate in work­ing groups to progress time-sen­si­­tive work
• com­plete some out-of-ses­­sion tasks that arise from meetings. 

Mem­bers are expect­ed to attend at least 75% of meetings.

Each SCN has a Clin­i­cal Lead who pro­vides lead­er­ship to the net­work and reports to the CEIH Commissioner. 

A CEIH Net­work Advi­sor and admin­is­tra­tive sup­port staff work close­ly with the SCN Lead and mem­bers to man­age the network’s over­all pro­gram of work. 

Yes. We wel­come appli­cants who are pas­sion­ate about improv­ing care and out­comes for patients and have expe­ri­ence rel­e­vant to the network.

In addi­tion, or instead of SCN mem­ber­ship, there are oppor­tu­ni­ties to par­tic­i­pate in work­ing groups that may be estab­lished to progress time-lim­it­ed pieces of work.

Con­sumers and pri­vate clin­i­cians will be remu­ner­at­ed as per CEIH and SA Health remu­ner­a­tion policies.

Sit­ting Fees and Reim­burse­ment for Exter­nal Indi­vid­u­als Pol­i­cy | SA Health

SA Pub­lic Sec­tor employ­ees, includ­ing SA Health staff, will not receive addi­tion­al remu­ner­a­tion, as par­tic­i­pa­tion is con­sid­ered part of their exist­ing duties and con­tri­bu­tion to statewide work.

Yes. Mem­ber­ship aims to include a bal­ance of expe­ri­ence from both met­ro­pol­i­tan and rur­al set­tings, as well as across hos­pi­tal and com­mu­ni­ty sectors. 

Yes. Mem­bers can attend meet­ings online or in per­son. Those join­ing vir­tu­al­ly are respon­si­ble for ensur­ing they are in a pri­vate loca­tion where information/​dis­cus­sions can remain confidential.