New SA Health boss Chris McGowan outlines eight priorities ahead

SA Health boss Chris McGowan has outlined eight key priorities as he and new Health Minister Stephen Wade get down to work.

• The initial announcement in April
• Off the Record predicted it in March

NEW SA Health boss Dr Chris McGowan has laid out a road map of eight priorities he and Health Minister Stephen Wade want to concentrate on in coming months.

As the huge department moves on from the controversial Transforming Health era under Labor, Dr McGowan released a video to staff advising them of the new agenda under the Liberal government.

The video was filmed on an iPhone at no cost and sent to staff with Dr McGowan introducing himself as the new chief executive, saying it was a privilege to be back with SA Health after 10 years working elsewhere in the health field.

He said the eight priorities from Mr Wade would give the department some initial direction and focus, with more work and clarity to come.

New SA Health boss Chris McGowan.

The eight areas are:

“THE future leadership coming from South Australia.” This follows a tradition of headhunting senior staff from interstate and overseas, and will involve development of staff at all levels to create a ‘backlog of people who are really powerful leaders’ as lucrative senior staff positions become available.

“A REAL lift in the community’s confidence in the health system.”

DR McGowan said the Minister naturally wants to ‘deliver on election promises’.

THIS includes a high level of engagement with staff including frontline clinicians and managers on decision making — he said: “that will be a real focus.”

ALSO on the list is: ‘A much bigger focus on prevention in healthcare, not only primary health care but right through the continuum to keep people out of hospital and well.”

“MENTAL health is a key area for improvement so expect us to have a real focus on that.”

“CLEARLY there is a big drive around the budget — budget is not just about money, it is about value for our community” so people get a good health system at a standard price they would expect to pay in other jurisdictions.

“ONE of my key focuses will be around data and making sure we have the data and people have access to the data so we have a central repository for data that is open architectures so we can unleash the creativity of the entire 40,000 people who work in our system to bring their creativity to how we deliver a better system.”

Dr McGowan indicated more direction to staff would come but these were the key messages for the moment.

“Those eight goals are pretty much the agenda for the future and give us a bit of a steer,” he said.