Friends of the Top End Health Service

The Friends of the Top End Health Service (TEHS) wants to work with you to improve services. TEHS wants to hear your views about health services and how services can be better. 

By joining the Friends of TEHS you can have a say in how health services are delivered in the Top End. It is also a way for you to get involved in activities to improve the safety and quality of health care. 

Friends of TEHS wants your feedback, ideas and suggestions. You may be involved in a focus group, workshop or forum, or join a committee.

You can become involved in Friends of TEHS if you are a user or potential user of health services. This includes if you are a patient, family member or carer. 

You have the option to be involved only in activities or areas that interest you.

Skills and experience needed

You do not need any skills or experience to be involved in the program. You just need to be interested in the TEHS services and want to share your ideas and suggestions.

You will be offered some training to tell you more about TEHS and how it operates.

What will happen to your information

Your information is kept private and confidential. Your name and contact details will be sent to the activity organiser only after you have agreed to take part.

Payment for your participation

Each activity will ask for different things from you. Some may ask you to come to the hospital to take part in a focus group about the designs for the hospital. Others may ask you to read a document sent by email and provide feedback. 

Some activities will take longer than others so you may be offered a payment or gift card to thank you for your time. You will be told before you agree to any activity if a payment or gift card will be offered. 

You should think about how this will affect any benefits you are currently receiving such as pensions, family payments or newstart allowance.

Service and activity areas

You will be asked to choose the service areas and activities you are interested in on the application form.

Service areas include:

• hospital services - Royal Darwin Hospital, Katherine Hospital and Gove District Hospital
• mental health
• alcohol and other drugs
• primary health care - Darwin, Top End remote, Katherine region and East Arnhem region.

The types of activities you can be involved in include:

• help to develop education programs for staff such as how to communicate better with the people who use TEHS services
• be part of the planning process and help with quality activities such as Quality Week - share your story, help mind a stall, suggest new ways to improve services
• help TEHS to review feedback management processes
• be a voice of the community by sitting on safety and quality committees
• help with TEHS activities such as NAIDOC Week and R U OK Day
• help to develop and review information for TEHS consumers - internet pages, pamphlets, consumer information boards and so on
• patient experience surveys - help TEHS develop survey tools and action plans from survey results
• help plan future services
• support staff working on renovations of health buildings to make sure TEHS get the best results for the community
• take part in the evaluation of services
• help develop or update policies - help with policies, guidelines and procedures to make sure the consumer view is represented
• help with planning and negotiations with contractors such as the Royal Darwin Hospital cafe
• help with the review of incidents such as patient falls or wrong medication given in error.

Contact

For more information and to express your interest email the consumer feedback coordinator: tehsconsumerfeedback.doh@nt.gov.au or call (08) 8922 6836.