Alison Standen commenced in the role of Chief Executive Officer at Corumbene in October 2021. Alison has over 30 years’ professional experience working in Tasmania with a varied career that has focussed on supporting vulnerable Tasmanians; this includes experience in health and community services, in senior leadership roles in not-for-profit and public institutions.
From 2018-21, Alison served as Member for Franklin in the Tasmanian Parliament, with roles including Shadow Minister for Housing and Opposition spokesperson for Disability Services and Ageing in the House of Assembly.
Having worked in senior Commonwealth and State Government roles for many years, and having completed a Master in Business Administration and the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) Company Directors Course, she has a strong understanding of public sector decision-making processes and governance.
Establishing a Heath Hub in regional Tasmania – place-based partnership solutions for strengthening rural aged care workforce and service delivery
Precis
Corumbene is an independent not-for-profit aged and community care provider based in the Derwent Valley (MMM2) in Southern Tasmania, offering residential aged care, home and community care, retirement living and social housing.
Around 10 years ago Corumbene made an ambitious and visionary decision to acquire a site to establish a Health Hub to expand primary health care services where gaps existed, and to resolve the need for more staff office accommodation.
In May 2024, Corumbene’s $12.7M Health Hub was opened, representing a landmark development with a significant financial and in-kind investment from the organisation.
The Hub has already attracted a UTAS Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training Program to support aged care workforce development locally and statewide, pathology service, a massage centre and cafe as well as enabling colocation of Corumbene Community Aged Care and Rural Primary Health Team (chronic disease prevention service funded through the PHN).
The presentation will provide an honest portrayal of our experiences establishing the Health Hub and outline its potential which is only partly realised, impacting cashflow and reputation and undermining the viability of some commercial tenants.
This includes attempts over more than three years to attract a GP provider as a cornerstone tenant to operate at the site to boost access to GPs for Corumbene’s residents, staff and the local community. Only 20% of the residents of Corumbene have a GP in the local area – the other 80% are serviced through telehealth by a private provider or by private providers in adjacent LGAs. It can be up to five weeks between visits by at GP to the Home.
It is believed that general practice will also attract a pharmacy, and other primary health professionals including a dentist, allied health practitioners and community health and wellbeing providers.
Comprehensive health planning at a regional level is lacking. Hence market intervention by governments through GP incentive grants and services like Urgent Care Clinics, although well-intentioned, have undermined our efforts to attract a GP provider in a competitive market, and many people still cannot access these facilities due to lack of transport or prohibitive costs associated with petrol.
There is also the risk of further fragmenting the primary care system and spreading the existing workforce more thinly, whilst failing to leverage existing assets at the Hub, and failing to address unmet demand in both New Norfolk and surrounds, including the highly dispersed population within the Central Highlands.