Salt sprinkles herself across campuses
The appointment of Robyn Salt to acting director of Primary Services at Wimmera Health Care Group is a prime example of Grampians Health sharing its expertise.
Ms Salt has worked more than two years as Primary Health manager at Edenhope District Memorial Hospital and has accepted an offer to jointly take the reins at WHCG. Leading executive officer Catherine Morley said Robyn’s appointment was a very important one for the many services provided under the Primary Care banner.
“It’s great to have Robyn’s expertise and knowledge available to help our team,” Ms Morley said.
“We advertised for the role extensively and I think it’s really great that Grampians Health had the experience and knowledge within the health service and that there’s a way that we can look at supporting campuses across the health service,” she said.
“This is a great opportunity for Grampians Health to look at how it can share expertise and resources across the western sector of the health service and support us all to focus on increasing access to care and services, supporting the staff and making sure that our community receive appropriate and timely health services to keep them well at home.”
Ms Salt said she was looking forward to learning exactly how primary care services were provided at WHCG.
“I want to see what is being provided and then look at areas that we can make any improvement on because I believe the future is actually community-based care,” she said.
“Between Edenhope and Horsham, we can have a more co-ordinated approach to health care and utilise our resources more effectively.”
Her first week has seen a collaborative approach to COVID positive pathways, using the COVID Care Monitor that Ballarat supports. There is also an arrangement for allied health professionals to assist with sub-acute patients that can be transferred to Edenhope, should there be a surge of COVID patients hospitalised at Horsham.
Background
Originally from Kaniva, Ms Salt began her career in aged care for 10 years at Bacchus Marsh. She also worked at Ballan before getting an offer to work in the carer respite program at Ballarat Health Services.
Ms Salt said she loved that role.
“It actually opened my eyes to the other side of caring for somebody who was actually aged or had dementia or a physical disability,” Ms Salt said.
After caring for her cancer-stricken parents, Ms Salt returned to the workforce in an assessment role with City of Ballarat’s Aged and Disability Services before managing the aged and disability services program at Moorabool Shire for 10 years.
Her next role was as the regional development coordinator for the Grampians Sector Development Team where she introduced 38 health, local government, multicultural and aboriginal centres to a new method for delivering services. While in a consultative role at EDMH, Ms Salt was lured to the Primary Health manager job and accepted on the proviso that she had a mentor she could train on the job to take over when her three-year commitment ended.
Ms Salt said her role at Edenhope and the new position at Horsham were both expected to end on June 30 and she would alternate them on a weekly basis until a structural decision was made on the future requirements.
“My role at Edenhope is more of a business role and finding the money to help us meet the targets so we can do the right thing by the community,” she said.
“The community there will tell us what we need and I’m grateful to them for that.
“I told them right from the start that it’s a ‘no wrong door’ policy because even if it’s not our service we need to assist them to get them to the service they need because that is half the battle.”
Pictured above: Grampians Health LEO for Horsham and Dimboola Catherine Morley welcomes Robyn Salt to her role.