A message for our members 

 

by Vicki Pearce

Chair, Board of Directors

Bendigo Community Health Services

 

On behalf of the Board of Directors I'd like to thank you for reading our new There For You e-news edition.

This is part of our commitment to keeping our members and the community up-to-date with all the happenings at Bendigo Community Health Services.

We're very proud of what our organisation and staff are achieving in continuing to deliver 'essential' services during this Coronavirus time.

There has been so much work done in such a short time to ensure we can safely continue to care for the community while keeping the safety of our clients and staff as the number one priority.

Our staff continue to turn up for work each day at the Eaglehawk site while others work behind the scenes in support at our Kangaroo Flat site and from home which is a very new experience for them.

Our doctors and health professionals have embraced Telehealth to ensure we can continue to help clients seeking our help either by phone or video link. The doctor then makes a decision on whether the client needs a face-to-face appointment at our Eaglehawk site. We've found Telehealth is being embraced by our clients and while some have concerns they are not actually seeing the doctor face-to-face they understand this is being done to look after their own health and that of our staff as we experience Stage 3 'lock down' restrictions in Victoria. 

The board has supported our CEO Gerard Jose in taking a seat on the City of Greater Bendigo Pandemic Relief and Recovery Committee.

While we remain in the grip of this Coronavirus pandemic for the moment, it's vitally important we start planning for the future as our organisation and our partners will play a vital role in the recovery effort as our community emerges from this challenging time. This will include ensuring people are supported as they return to work and education, the vulnerable continue to get the help they need to survive and people who have been impacted by this period have access to mental health support.

Importantly, our Board of Directors continues to meet despite Stage 3 restrictions with our April meeting conducted via Microsoft Teams on Tuesday night which was a different experience for us all.

It's important the Board continues meetings as while the way we are doing things might be different the importance of corporate governance, finances, policy and procedure remain a high priority. 

We are about to enter an important financial phase and our organisation has started the process of building a new budget cycle in an environment that is strained and changing by the day. We remain committed to ensuring our next budget is responsible and puts Bendigo Community Health Services in a great position to continue caring for the community as we've done for more than 45 years.

Finally, we'd love to hear from you. Do you have any questions of the Board? Please email them through to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will address them in the next edition of There For You e-news or directly with you if that's your preference.

Until then,

We hope you and your family are staying safe during this Coronavirus time.

We all long for the day when the world returns to as close to normal as possible and we can all get out and about again.