General

The Inaugural Staff Recognition Awards Presentation Dinner held at McCracken’s Country Club on Thursday 30th October proved to be an outstanding success. The attendance at the dinner was fantastic, with colleagues, family and friends alike supporting the finalists for the Awards. In all more than 140 people attended the Presentation including, the Minister for Health Ms Lea Stevens, The Opposition Minister, Mr Dean Brown, The Chief Executive of the Department of Human Services Mr Jim Birch, Ms Lyn Poole and Ms Raelene Burke from Country & Disability Services of DHS and Ms Meredith Hodgeson, RGM from the Mid North Region. In attendance were also members of the Regional Board of Directors and the Regional General Manager, Mr Kevin Eglinton. The MC for the evening was the Chairman of the Regional Board Mr Michael Pengilly.

Mr John Schuman was the Guest Speaker who’s very amusing address kept everyone entertained during dinner.

Following Mr Schumans address the Awards Ceremony began with the naming of the finalists who were all presented with a Certificate by the Minister for Health, Ms Lea Stevens. The Award recipients for each Category represented was announced by the Minister and presented with a Trophy and Prize Certificate.

The Hills Mallee Southern Region has been participating in the SA Rural Education Scholarship Initiative, which is auspiced through the Department Human Services, Social Justice and Country Divisions, since 2002. During that period the Region has sponsored four undergraduates all of whom have or will return to the Region to work for a period commensurate with the length of the scholarship given. The Region has a strong commitment to ensuring that we maintain a skilled workforce in the Region and the Scholarship program is contributing in a meaningful way to our recruitment and retention objectives.

The successful applicants for the latest Peer Shadowing funding round, an initiative of the Country Division of the Department of Human Services, have just been announced. Once again Staff in the Hills Mallee Southern Region were again well represented and we congratulate them all. The following people will be participating in this initiative over the coming year:

A very successful Change Management Workshop was held with John Edwards (as facilitator) at the Hahndorf Resort on 9th and 10th February 2004.The Workshop was a joint effort between the Hills Mallee Southern Regional Health Service and the Riverland Regional Health Service. Approx 180 participants took part with about 140 of the participants coming from the HMSRHS.

Please find attached the Annual Report for 2003/2004 financial year.

Since we started the Regional Scholarship Program in 2002 we have awarded scholarships to 5 Undergraduate Students, four Nursing and one Allied Health. In 2004 one of the Nursing recipients worked in the Region as part of the scholarship conditions, we have two working in the Region this year and next year the Allied Health recipient will commence work in the Region for three years. One of the Students who received a 2 year scholarship withdrew from the program and she repaid the funding that she had received.