Flying visit to Palm Island to meet Community Company teams

Northern Queensland Primary Health Network (NQPHN) representatives have flown to Palm Island for the day to meet Palm Island Community Company (PICC) teams.

Palm Island visit

— (L-R): NQPHN staff Melanie Walsh, Alanna DeGraaf, and Alex Dare visit Palm Island

Primary Care Engagement Officer Alanna DeGraaf, Senior Contracts Performance Officer – NQ Health Priorities Melanie Walsh, and Senior Digital Capability Officer – Primary Care Alex Dare visited the island 70km off the coast of Townsville to see firsthand what NQPHN commissions at PICC.

NQPHN funds three key PICC programs:

  • the Afterhours GP Service
  • Psychological Therapies
  • Integrated Team Care (ITC).

They said meeting with the teams on Palm Island was extremely beneficial to see their innovative integration of services provided to the community, including their integration of education and early childhood development and healthcare initiatives.

Discussed during the meeting was PICC’s practice data, which was helpful in highlighting their strengths, especially the great work done by health workers in capturing important measurements such as waist circumference and blood pressure.

Areas were highlighted for a future focus based on the analysed data supplied by NQPHN for further quality improvement initiatives.

PICC Executive Manager (Primary Health Services) Vanessa Priday was delighted to see Alanna, Mel, and Alex and extended an invitation to visit more often.

NQPHN looks forward to visiting more and working closely with the teams at PICC to support the amazing work they do for their community.

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