Connecting Healthcare In Communities

Northern

Connecting Healthcare in Communities (CHIC) in the Northern area covers an area from south of Mackay, north to the Torres Strait and west to the Northern Territory border, and is home to around 630,000 people. The area consists of the Mackay, Townsville, Mount Isa, Cairns and Hinterland, Cape York, and Torres Strait Health Service Districts and it is within these geographical boundaries that the local Partnership Councils are being established.

In the North, CHIC has worked with primary health care service providers in each of the Districts to determine a local approach, in the presence of a unique mix of enablers and barriers, to progress the partnership based initiative.  In acknowledgement of these factors and their impact on prospective partners and partnerships, a number of different models have emerged to support the emerging Partnership Councils.

The Northern CHIC Advisory Group has been established as the governance body for the CHIC initiative in the North. This group had its inaugural meeting in July with its membership representative of government and non–government primary health care service providers from both urban and rural and remote locations.  The Advisory Group, as a cross-sector, area- wide partnership itself, has made steady progress and has been able to develop resources to support the local Partnership Councils. Local Partnership Councils are invited to submit Service Delivery and Innovation Funding proposals in early 2008.

Partnership Councils

• Northern CHIC Advisory Group
• Cairns
• Cape York
• Mackay
• North West Queensland
• Torres Strait
• Townsville