Communicating clearly with the community

Through its assessment of activity and performance results in Healthcare Quarterly, Murrumbidgee Local Health District has been able to provide clear communication to the local community about important services.

Each quarter, senior executives at Murrumbidgee Local Health District meet with their Communications team to discuss BHI’s latest Healthcare Quarterly results. The team reviews the report’s activity and performance profiles for the local health district (LHD) and local hospitals as well as exploring results more deeply in the BHI Data Portal to identify any remarkable results or emerging trends, and discuss appropriate actions.

In late 2023, the Murrumbidgee Communications team received enquiries from the community via social media about the long wait time for tonsillectomies. When Healthcare Quarterly, October to December 2023 was released in early 2024, the team was able to confirm that in Murrumbidgee there had been a significant drop from the previous quarter in the number of tonsillectomies performed and an associated growth in the waiting list for the procedure.

The Communications team took this information to the Executive Director of Medical Services and General Manager of Wagga Wagga Base Hospital, who advised that the increased waiting time for tonsillectomies was due to the transition to a new Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist who had replaced an existing ENT. The new ENT had started consulting in late 2023, adding new patients to the list, but hadn’t yet started operating.

Armed with this new information, the Murrumbidgee team was able to respond to the community to advise the reason for the longer waits and when they could expect an improvement.

The results of Healthcare Quarterly, January to March 2024 published the following quarter showed there had been an increase in tonsillectomies performed and a subsequent decrease in the waiting list. The Communications team communicated these positive results to the local community through local media, social media and other communications channels.

See more case studies