Consumer Representatives

St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney is committed to having a leading consumer participation program that enables effective partnerships with patients, their families and carers (consumers) to better meet the needs of the community it serves.   We believe that consumers have a key role in decision making on organisational initiatives.  They can provide important advice to assist the hospital with meeting the needs and expectations of the community, and embedding the philosophy of person centred care.

There is strong evidence that outlines the benefits of partnerships between healthcare staff, patients and their families and carers in improving healthcare quality including increasing safety, patient, family and staff satisfaction.

To foster these partnerships, St Vincent’s Hospital enlists consumer representatives.  Consumer representatives may be past, current or potential users of St Vincent’s Hospital healthcare. 

The key aspects of their voluntary role include:

• Offering a specific experience as: a consumer of health services; as a patient or, as a family member involved in caring for a patient or consumer of health services to assist the hospital in meeting the needs of consumers accessing its services
• Advocating for patients and their family on hospital committees and working parties
• Actively participating in the development and review of quality improvement activities including patient surveys, patient brochures, policies etc.
• Providing valuable advice from a consumer perspective

All of our prospective consumer representatives will have the opportunity to attend volunteer induction and corporate orientation, in addition to hospital mandatory training, and consumer representative specific training.

Our Consumer Participation Coordinator recruits and manages all consumer representatives.  If you would like to become a member of a growing and dynamic team of consumer representatives, please contact svhs.consumerengagement@svha.org.au