Clinical Councils

The purpose of the Clinical Councils is to provide the Board of the Darling Downs and West Moreton PHN with clinical recommendations and advice on the unique health needs of communities in regional, rural and remote areas, allowing the best possible commissioning and program decisions to be made by the organisation.

In providing guidance and advice, the Clinical Councils ensure a clinical perspective is considered by the Darling Downs and West Moreton PHN Board and the Chief Executive Officer, so that decisions, investments and innovations are patient-centred, cost-effective, locally relevant, aligned to departmental and local expectations and appropriately prioritised. 

The Clinical Councils act as the regional champions of locally relevant clinical care pathways designed to streamline patient care, improve the quality of care and utilise existing health resources efficiently to improve health outcomes.

Recommendations and Advice

Recommendations and advice are focused at a strategic level and  include:

• Meeting the needs of local communities – including people with chronic and complex conditions;
• Prioritisation of commissioning and planning to meet the needs of the community;
• Best use of finite resources;
• Implementation of clinically relevant programs across our region; and
• Evaluation of primary/community based health care services and programs supported by or delivered by Darling Downs and West Moreton PHN. 

There is a focus on recommendations and advice to: 

• Support General Practice as the cornerstone of Primary Care; 
• Facilitate effective and efficient health care provision to prevent hospital admissions and emergency department presentations;
• Improve the coordination of care to ensure people receive the right care at the right time in the right place;
• Improve medical and health care services through cost-effective investment and innovation;
• Work in partnership with Hospital and Health Services, councils and other organisations via the Regional Health Alliance; 
• Develop and formalise relationships across the Queensland and New South Wales borders to account for patient flows.

Two Clinical Councils represent the Darling Downs and West Moreton regions: