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John Bentley will lead the Mudgee Health Council for the next year, as the council looks to expand its membership, raise its profile and make Mudgee Hospital as user-friendly as possible.
Long term chairperson Judy Blackman stepped down at the Health Council’s AGM, and Mr Bentley was appointed to the position, with Jane Leary as vice chairperson and Mrs Blackman as secretary.
Mr Bentley is a former high school principal and education director who retired to Mudgee in 2002.
He joined the Mudgee Health Council 18 months ago, seeing it as an opportunity to engage his mind while giving something back to his new community.
He said he enjoyed being part of the Health Council, not because he wasn’t busy enough, but because the opportunity to help the community made it very satisfying.
Mr Bentley said his background in the Department of Education gave him some experience with bureaucracy that was useful in the health system.
“It’s a pleasant challenge,” he said.
The Health Council’s role is to provide a link between the community and the Health Service, both keeping the community informed and letting the Health Service know what the public wants.
The Health Council was involved in Mid-Western Regional Council’s Live Smart program, and helped to organise the Mudgee Health Service open day.
The council consists of 10 volunteers with different areas of expertise, ranging from a former nurse to a winemaker, and the group plans to advertise for new members to expand its roster to roughly a dozen.
“Ten’s a good number, but the wider the representation we have the better, so we hope to broaden that,” Mr Bentley said.
The council meets every month, with members following up aspects of the council’s work between meetings.
Mr Bentley said the role was not onerous, but it required people to commit to representing their community, listening and communicating back to the council.
Over the coming 12 months, Mr Bentley plans to consult directly with local organisations such as health groups and service clubs, to learn more about the community’s needs and to increase awareness of the Health Council and its role.
Because people only visited the hospital when they were sick, he said many had no idea what services the Health Service offered, from prenatal and antenatal health through to aged care.
He believes one of the strengths of Mudgee Health Service, and small hospitals in general, is the personal relationship that can develop between staff and patients. He said Mudgee Health Service had an extremely professional and dedicated staff.
The Health Council last year performed a small survey to identify issues they needed to tackle in their plan for the future, talking to 100 locals of varying ages and both genders.
The priorities proved to be both the positive and negative elements of ease of access to services within the hospital, patient satisfaction and awareness of the complaints process, and public awareness of the health council’s role.
Mr Bentley said most of the feedback was positive, which was pleasing, but it gave the Health Council a few ideas for improvements that could be made and areas that needed attention.