With the opening of the Tweed Valley Hospital in May 2024, several new services became available to the community.
In order to inform local GPs and other primary care clinicians of the new range of services now offered at the hospital, Healthy North Coast and Northern NSW Local Health District (NNSWLHD) launched Our Patients Together – an initiative designed to connect hospital staff with primary care clinicians.
This program gives hospital teams the opportunity to showcase their services, helping to build stronger connections and improve collaboration between primary and secondary care providers.
This is an outworking of the ‘one health system’ mindset on the North Coast, a commitment by HNC, MNCLHD and NNSWLHD to work collaboratively to drive better health outcomes for the community.
It also allows clinicians to network and get to know the colleagues involved in the care of their shared patients.
The first Our Patients Together event was held on Tuesday 13 May 2025. Teams from cardiac services, maternity and antenatal services, and cancer care services provided comprehensive overviews of their offerings. This included referral pathways, eligibility criteria, and easy pathways to get in touch with the team.
The event sparked meaningful engagement among clinicians, with active discussions and opportunities for GPs to participate in multidisciplinary team meetings with hospital specialists.
The team from Mid & North Coast HealthPathways also spoke at the event, providing an overview of the service, information on how to access it, and how to register for a personalised account which allows access to the CPD reporting feature.
The next Our Patients Together event is planned for October, where some other hospital services will be showcased.
Pictured above: Dr Martin Sebastian, Director of Cardiology at Tweed Valley Hospital.
