Castlemaine Health and CHIRP Community Health both provide highly valued and well utilised community health services for Mount Alexander Shire. We are both deeply committed to ensuring we get the best possible health outcomes for our community through our work in partnership with each other and the community.
We would like to acknowledge the concern and frustration around the service shortfalls that CHIRP is experiencing and the impact on our service users and staff, as was discussed at the event hosted Monday 10th February 2020 by the independent community group Friends of CHIRP.
We hear and share their views about the benefits of community-based and preventative health services for our community and are working hard to develop sustainable solutions through the following two projects:
- Castlemaine Health and CHIRP are developing options to further strengthen our work together with the possibility of service integration and co-location. A steering committee has been formed to progress this vital work consisting of the CEOs and representatives of both Boards, along with Department of Health & Human Services.
- In parallel, work is happening on a longer-term project between our two organisations and the Mount Alexander Shire Council to look at development of a Health and Wellbeing Hub. State Government funding has been provided to conduct a Master Plan in 2020 exploring our options.
It is important that we take the time to get both of these processes right and develop viable, longÂ-term solutions to improve the health and wellness of the Mount Alexander Shire communities into the future.
Margaret (Peggy) Ronnau, Chair, Castlemaine Health
Lexi Randall-L’Estrange, Chair, CHIRP Community Health (registered as Castlemaine District Community Health)
