| Health professionals
|
|
|
|
Allied Health
back to Services listing
Allied Health adds value to patient care across Health Waikato.
The core professions include: dietetics, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, psychology and social work. At Health Waikato we have:
- 22 dietitians
- more than 80 occupational therapists
- 70 physiotherapists
- more than 50 psychologists
- 90 social workers and
- 30 therapy assistants
Allied health professionals are directly involved with client care in both physical and mental health settings.
They bring specialist knowledge and competencies to the delivery of health services to our clients.
Scopes of practice involve client assessment followed by planned
intervention and client review in accordance with the specific
competencies of each practitioner group (DHBNZ, 2007) www.dhbnz.org.nz/Site/Allied-Health/Default.aspx.
Allied Health Professional Development Unit proposal
This proposal recommends allocating responsibility for professional development and support to the Allied Health clinical leaders and thereby disestablishing the dedicated Allied Health professional development unit (PDU).
Waikato District Health Board (DHB) has a funding shortfall of $20m during 2012/2013 and further savings will be required of $5m in 2013/2014 and $5m in 2014/2015 i.e. about $30m over three years. We gave careful consideration to how we could meet the contribution to this savings target for 2012/2013. This proposal provides one approach to this savings challenge.
The Allied Health PDU was established in June 2011, however to date it has not been seen to deliver significant value to the allied health grouping. Although the aim was that the allied health PDU would contribute to improved service delivery, it has in fact remained separate from day-to-day operational activity to deliver patient care. Removing the investment in this high cost, non-front line unit will provide a contribution to Waikato DHB’s financial savings target with minimal impact on direct patient care.
Existing clinical leadership roles will be supported to deliver professional development, education and support by aligning these functions with operational service delivery.
Read the full document here.
|
Di Peers
Allied Health group manager |
Media releases
Events
|
|
|
