NSW Health Pathol­o­gy is cur­rent­ly devel­op­ing our next strate­gic plan, which will guide how we design and deliv­er our ser­vices to the peo­ple of NSW over the next five to ten years.

There is a lot of pres­sure on the health sys­tem cur­rent­ly with more peo­ple liv­ing longer with mul­ti­ple long-term con­di­tions, a short­age of health­care pro­fes­sion­als includ­ing GPs, and the ris­ing cost of pro­vid­ing care along with chal­lenges in our aged care services.

At the same time, advances in health, sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy are allow­ing the health sys­tem to make sure more peo­ple have access to the high­est qual­i­ty, time­ly care where they need it. It will see more care pro­vid­ed clos­er to home, or at home. It will help us pre­dict and pre­vent more ill health and admis­sions to hos­pi­tal. It will become more per­son­alised to match your indi­vid­ual needs.

NSW Health Pathol­o­gy can help lead this change and progress to help keep the peo­ple we care for safer and healthier.

Pathol­o­gy tests involve analysing sam­ples of blood, urine, flu­id, cells or tis­sue to help pre­vent, diag­nose and/or treat ill­ness. Some pathol­o­gists meet patients in clin­ics and on hos­pi­tal wards, but oth­ers work in lab­o­ra­to­ries along­side sci­en­tists and tech­ni­cians to pro­vide test results to oth­er doc­tors, such as sur­geons, Emer­gency and Inten­sive Care doc­tors, GPs and can­cer spe­cial­ists. 70% of med­ical deci­sions rely on pathol­o­gy, includ­ing the major­i­ty of can­cer diagnosis.

Pub­lic pathol­o­gy is a state gov­ern­ment-run and fund­ed ser­vice. NSW Health Pathol­o­gy is part of NSW Health. We oper­ate more than 60 accred­it­ed lab­o­ra­to­ries and employ over 5,000 high­ly spe­cialised staff includ­ing pathol­o­gists, sci­en­tists and tech­ni­cians. Cur­rent­ly, we have around 150 pathol­o­gy col­lec­tion ser­vices in NSW pub­lic hos­pi­tals, some pri­vate hos­pi­tals, com­mu­ni­ty health cen­tres, as well as some home col­lec­tions and in aged care facil­i­ties. We per­form over 100,000 clin­i­cal and sci­en­tif­ic inves­ti­ga­tions each day from before birth to end of life. The answers we pro­vide can have a major impact on a person’s life.

It is impor­tant NSW Health Pathol­o­gy is reg­u­lar­ly find­ing ways to under­stand your expe­ri­ences with us, with pathol­o­gy more broad­ly and your expec­ta­tions for the future of your health care.

We are aware of the impact of pathol­o­gy on the lives of patients. Pathol­o­gy test­ing, the col­lect­ing of sam­ples, the anx­ious wait for results and the out­come of test­ing can often have life chang­ing impacts on the lives of indi­vid­u­als and their loved ones.

It is also our respon­si­bil­i­ty to make sure we con­tin­ue to advance and improve our ser­vices so that you have the best expe­ri­ences pos­si­ble and to help improve your health and wellbeing.

We also acknowl­edge and respect that everyone’s health jour­ney is unique, just as we are all unique peo­ple. Under­stand­ing these dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ences is impor­tant to ensur­ing we deliv­er per­son­alised care for your indi­vid­ual needs.

We are com­mit­ted to offer­ing safe, respect­ful and inclu­sive ways for you to be involved as much as fea­si­bly pos­si­ble. This work is best described as con­sul­ta­tion unlike oth­er engage­ment approach­es (e.g. co-design).

This work will fol­low NSW Health’s Pol­i­cy for con­sumer, car­er and com­mu­ni­ty remu­ner­a­tion. Sur­vey par­tic­i­pants will receive no remu­ner­a­tion – mon­ey for time and expe­ri­ence. Par­tic­i­pants of online focus groups will receive remuneration.