Systemic processes enable the board to listen to clinicians
Every board agenda item is considered through the lens of patient safety and quality.
Openness, transparency and the ability to have frank and fearless discussions with clinicians are central to implementing effective clinical governance arrangements, says Professor Judy Searle, Chair of Northern Adelaide Local Health Network Governing Board.
Professor Searle, who until 2024 was also Deputy Chair of the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service (GCHHS) Board, uses systematic processes that enable the board to hear directly from clinicians. These processes encourage clinicians to speak openly about difficult situations and system‑level challenges.
When Professor Searle joined the GCHHS board, she introduced a standing agenda item in which every board meeting started with a clinician or team of clinicians telling a patient story.
As deputy board chair and chair of the Safety, Quality and Clinician Engagement (SQCE) Committee, Professor Searle felt the story would set the tone for the board meeting and signal that high-quality patient care was at the top of the agenda.
‘We were very structured in our approach to bringing the patient stories to the board, having them at the start of the meeting and also presented by a clinician to provide the workforce lens,’ she says.
Professor Judy Searle*, Chair, Northern Adelaide Local Health Network Governing Board, South Australia
‘It was very powerful and moving for the board members to hear how our clinicians felt when patients received less than ideal quality care. The stories sent a message about why we were there and what we cared about.’
This was one of several ways that Professor Searle entrenched governance for high-quality care. By the time she left the Gold Coast in 2024, every board item was being considered through a lens of patient safety and quality.
In an organisation where the benefits of clinical governance were once poorly understood, it is now embedded at every level of GCHHS, and the Department of Health acknowledged the SQCE Committee as an exemplar governance committee worthy of emulation across the country.
Professor Searle says strong leadership had created a spirit of openness and transparency between the executive and the board that enabled the organisation to learn from its errors.
* Professor Searle is a member of the Commission’s Clinical Governance Advisory Committee