The saying ‘it takes a village’ has never been more evident than this week in Darwin when our IRIS team were joined by Associate Professor Kris Rallah-Baker; the optometry team from Deadly Vision Centre; staff from the Indigenous Australia Program, Fred Hollows Foundation and surgical nursing staff from Healthscope Darwin Private as a positive and focused coalition of service providers coming together for the benefit of First Nations Australians.
The partnership enabled eight (8) Aboriginal patients to receive culturally safe world class ophthalmology services. Each organisation brought a skill set that ensured smooth service delivery for the patients and assisted in reducing barriers to access and allowed patients to source healthcare services close to their home.
This innovative partnership brought together specialised skill sets that made it possible to deliver culturally safe and sensitive eye health care. Vanguard Health's innovative model of care, IRIS, continues to create common ground for a range of service providers to come together to close the gap in healthcare access and improve outcomes for rural and remote First Nations Australians.
This now established and accepted platform, and a funded expansion of it into other communities across Australia, is a clear opportunity for the Albanese Government to demonstrate its clear intent support regional and remote Australians with high quality, patient focused care closer to home, ultimately contributing to better health equity no matter where you live.
