Annual General Meeting - 2017

 On Wednesday 1 November we had the Annual General Meeting of the Health Care Consumers Association.

We are pleased to announce that the following people are on the Executive Committee:
Sue Andrews (President)
Michelle Banfield (Vice President)
Indra Gajanayake (Treasurer)
And the general members of the committee are
Lou Bannister, Marion Reilly, Alan Thomas, Marcus Bogie, Shelley McInnis and Bernard Borg Caruana.

Chris and Yelin

Kate, busy taking the minutes of the meeting.

HCCA Staff - Yelin, Kate, Kathryn and Sandra

Kathryn and Fiona

President, Sue Andrews

Fiona Tito Wheatland presented on her thesis.

Indra reported on the financial position of the organisation.

After 16 years, Meg, HCCA Bookkeeper, retired!

HCCA appoints Executive Director

At its June meeting, the HCCA Executive Committee resolved to appoint Darlene Cox as the Association's Executive Director. Darlene had been appointed interim ED earlier in the year on a part time basis and we are delighted that she has been able to accept the position on a full time basis.

Darlene is responsible for the effective management and ongoing development of HCCA and achievement of the Association's objectives. This includes: strategic advice, leadership of staff, maintaining effective working relationships across the health system, financial management and the development of members and member services.

She has been involved in our work as a member, adviser, consumer representative and even occasionally as a casual staff member over a period of more than ten years, and we are delighted that she is available to take on this important role at this time.

As readers of this blog will know, Darlene has a passion for all aspects of our work at HCCA and is challenging us to improve our e-literacy as a means of ensuring that we maximise our impact on the delivery of safer and higher quality health services to consumers in the ACT community. This post is an indicator of her success in achieving this goal with at least one of her members.

Russell

About HCCA

The Health Care Consumers' Association of the ACT (HCCA) was incorporated in 1978 and is the principal health consumer advocacy organisation in the ACT. It has supported and developed health consumer perspectives and policy in the ACT for 30 years.

HCCA is a body through which health care consumers can participate in policy, planning and service decisions that affect their health. We work to improve the quality and availability of health services, supports consumers to identify shared priorities about health, and represent these views to the ACT Government.

The organisation is the lead organisation in the ACT advocating for the inclusion of consumers on health boards and planning structures. It has grown from a small group to a substantial organisation contributing a consumer perspective across the ACT health system.

HCCA involves consumers through:

• consumer representation
• consumer consultation
• community forums
• health information sessions about health services and
  
• regular HCCA communications

HCCA Executive Committee 2007 - 8

As an Incorporated Association, HCCA is managed by a governing committee.

President: Russell McGowan

Russell McGowan is a bone marrow transplant survivor who became interested in the heath consumer movement as a result of his experiences in treatment during the early 90s. He is vice president of the Consumers' Health Forum of Australia and participates on a range of national and territory level strategic committees.

Vice President: Marion Reilly

Marion currently works for the Australian Computer Society and previously in the Australian Public Service (20 years service) working for the development of programs for services in housing and aged care. Marion served as a Member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and Member of the Standing Committee for Social Policy. She is a member of the ACT Asthma Association.

Treasurer: Bev McConnell

Bev has worked in the APS in Canberra and Sydney for most of the past 17 years, mainly in communications and broadcasting. Her main areas of interest in consumer health care are electronic health records and prescribing, and health technology R&D. She is a current member of the ACT Hepatitis C Council.

Secretary: Kate Moore

Kate became committed to developing an effective consumer voice in health policy in the early 1980s after working as an Adviser to the then Commonwealth Minister for Health and Community Services, Dr Neal Blewett. In that position she saw first hand how powerful interest groups shaped the delivery of health care, and how that resulted in a system that suited the interests of providers rather than consumers. After leaving her position with Dr Blewett, Kate became the Executive Director of the Consumers' Health Forum, a position she held for 7 years. Kate has been on the HCCA Executive since 1999, and is Chair of the ACT Health Council.

Member: Adele Stevens

Member: Judith Manning

Member: David Lovegrove