Mission Statement

The Health Department’s mission as the principal health authority is to promote, protect, maintain and restore the health of the people of Western Australia.

Key principles

To secure the greatest possible improvement in the health and quality of life for all Western Australians involves building a system which:

• recognises that all individuals should have a fair opportunity to attain their full health potential, irrespective of age, gender, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status or place of residence and targets resources where needs are greatest;
• seeks to maximise the clinical and cost effectiveness of services and thereby secure the greatest benefit for the resources available;
• respects the differing needs of individuals, groups and communities and engages people, both individually and collectively, in making informed choices about the type of health care services they want;
• seeks to optimise the individual’s total experience of the service provided, the courtesy and effectiveness of the support arrangements, the appropriateness of the interventions, the skill with which it is delivered and the benefits which are derived;
• is clinically and economically sustainable.

Strategic Direction

The Health Department of Western Australia has identified seven strategic directions to guide its activities throughout 1997/98:

• purchasing for health benefit
• seeking continuous improvement
• involving people
• working in partnership
• securing healthy alliances
• care closer to home
• best use of resources.

Role of the Health Department of Western Australia

Western Australians are some of the healthiest people in the world.

We are living longer and healthier lives, with a life expectancy of 74 years for men and 80 years for women. Nationally, Western Australia enjoys the lowest mortality rate of any Australian State.

Within the Health Department of Western Australia we endeavour to provide support and services to cover the full spectrum of health issues and ensure this by working closely with the Federal Government, local authorities, private organisations, and charities.

The network of hospitals across the State range from small district to larger regional hospitals in the country through to the large teaching hospitals in the metropolitan area.

In the metropolitan area the public hospitals are at Joondalup, Osborne Park, Swan Districts, Bentley, Kalamunda, Armadale/Kelmscott and Rockingham/Kwinana;

There are nine major regional public hospitals at Albany, Narrogin, Bunbury, Northam, Kalgoorlie, Geraldton, Carnarvon, Port Hedland and Derby and a further 68 smaller hospitals in country areas.

These public hospitals provide a broad range of services including emergency, medical, surgical, paediatric, obstetric and rehabilitation services, but do not provide tertiary level or super-speciality services.

Tertiary level hospital treatment and obstetric care in the public sector are provided at Royal Perth Hospital; Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital; Fremantle Hospital; King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women; and Princess Margaret Hospital for Children.

These public hospitals provide a broad range of super-specialty and specialty services, for example, intensive care, vascular, cardiothoracic, oncology, renal, neurosurgery and obstetrics. They provide significant levels of inpatient care, cater for relatively rare diseases and provide unusually complex and/or costly forms of treatment.