Northern Territory

My father just got back from a short stint as the temporary CEO of the Katherine West Health Board in the Australian Northern Territory (NT). The CEO had taken a break for a few months to spend some time in the South, and Alan was ideally suited to help out for a bit. The photo above shows most of the board members. My father, Alan, is the man in the middle with his arms clasped together.

There a lot of challenges in providing health care in remote, often Aboriginal, communities but the KWHB seems to be working well. The Federal Government has provided more funding recently, which has also helped increase health in areas of the NT.

There will probably always be a set of structural challenges in providing high quality health care in such a huge, rugged, country, but in that area at least, things seem to be moving in the right direction.