West Metro Health Service Partnership Health Needs Assessment 2023

Can you help us paint a picture of the health care system in Melbourne’s northern and western suburbs? We’d love to hear from you by Friday, 9 June 2023.

North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network (NWMPHN) is working with several major health organisations on a project to better understand health needs in what is perhaps the most densely populated and diverse region of Australia.

We want to hear from community members and service providers – including doctors, nurses, medical specialists, mental and allied health professionals, pharmacists and aged care workers about the health needs across the region and their experience of accessing health care services. By gathering this information, we and our partners will be able to see where new services are needed, or where existing services need to work more closely together. We can then take real steps to improve the quality of care and service for everyone in the region – making us all healthier and happier.

About the project

NWMPHN is collaborating on this project with the West Metro Health Service Partnership (WMHSP). The WMHSP is helping deliver better health outcomes in the west metropolitan region and Victoria by collaborating to reform and grow our health system. It brings together some of Victoria’s premier health services and organisations, including the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, the Royal Women’s Hospital, Western Health, Mercy Health and the Royal Children’s Hospital.

This project will add to existing data analysis including NWMPHN’s Health Needs Assessment 2022–25, to help health services keep people well and out of hospital. We are particularly keen to hear from:

• parents and carers of children aged 0 to 9
• women aged 20 to 39
• people aged 65 and over
• people with cancer.

Your contributions will add valuable local-level detail to data already provided by organisations such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

Surveys for community and service providers

In our surveys we want to hear from a very wide range of people and providers. We want to know about how you access health care, what difficulties you have in getting or supplying treatments, what’s working and what’s not.

All your responses are anonymous.

The more people who want to help us out by filling out our surveys, the better and more detailed the picture we can build up. And that means we and our partners can do the best job possible of making things work for everybody.

So, would you like to help? These surveys take only about 20 minutes to complete, and you don’t need to have any information at hand before starting.

Community survey

 If you live or work in Melbourne’s northern or western suburbs, the CBD, Macedon Ranges or Bacchus Marsh, you can find the survey for community members here.

Complete this survey to enter the draw to win one of 5 $100 EFTPOS gift cards.

Provider survey

 If you’re a health service provider in the same areas, you can find your survey here. Health providers will not enter the draw.

Both surveys close off at 5pm on Friday, 9 June 2023.

These surveys are available in English only and we understand that surveys are not suitable for everyone. We’re addressing this by directly engaging various groups of people (see below).

Other ways we’re collecting data

NWMPHN and the hospitals involved in this project are engaging community members directly through their consumer reference and advisory groups to ensure that the data we collect accurately reflects the diversity of the region.

NWMPHN is also engaging bicultural and peer workers to coordinate safe and appropriate consultations in languages other than English and with specific groups of people, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, people with mental illness and LGBTIQ+ people.

There are other ways to contribute to improving health care in our region. To find out more please join our People Bank.

Thanks for your help – and we look forward to your input!