The NSW Ministry of Health supports the Secretary, the NSW Minister for Health and Minister for Regional Health, Minister for Mental Health and Minister for Medical Research to perform their executive government and statutory functions. This includes promoting, protecting, developing, maintaining and improving the health and wellbeing of the people of NSW, while considering the needs of the state and the available finances and resources.
The NSW Ministry of Health is also the system manager for the NSW public health system and consists of ministry branches, centres and offices.
The Secretary is responsible for the management of the NSW health system and setting the strategic direction to ensure NSW continues to provide exceptional healthcare, research and education.
The Secretary chairs key system governance and system management committees including Ministry Executive, Health System Strategy, Health System Performance Monitor and Senior Executive Forum.
These groups are critical in considering issues of health system-wide interest, including the NSW Health budget, development and implementation of health policy and monitoring of health system performance.
The Population and Public Health Division coordinates the strategic direction, planning, monitoring and performance of population health services across the state.
The division responds to the public health aspects of major incidents or disasters in NSW, monitors health, identifies trends and evaluates the impact of health services. The division is responsible for improving health through measures that prevent disease and injury. Population health services aim to create social and physical environments that promote health and provide people with accessible information to encourage healthier choices.
The Financial Services and Asset Management Division leads a range of functions including financial performance, accounting, insurance, financial data analysis and reporting, strategic procurement, corporate services and business improvement, and statewide asset management.
The division provides financial leadership including governing, leading and strengthening sustainable resource allocation within the NSW public health system to underpin the delivery of patient care, and help health decisionmakers access the right information at the right time.
The division has the lead role in managing and monitoring the financial performance of the NSW public health system within the NSW Health Performance Framework. It is responsible for monitoring recurrent and capital expenditure against the annual budget allocation and reporting on NSW Health’s financial performance to both the Ministry executive and the government.
The People, Culture and Governance Division provides executive leadership and strategic direction to a diverse range of professional advisory services to enable and support the achievement of NSW Health’s strategic objectives to meet the needs of health service management and delivery in NSW.
The division is responsible for leading the development, integration and review of capability-based talent management strategies and a values-based cultural framework across NSW Health. The division drives the implementation of governance frameworks across NSW Health, including structures, decision-making processes and control systems.
The Health System Strategy and Patient Experience Division is responsible to the Secretary for strategic health policy development, interjurisdictional negotiations and funding strategies including activity based management, systemwide planning of health services including mental health, capital planning and investment, systems integration, setting the strategic direction for maternal, child, youth and paediatric health policy and working across government agencies to respond to many intractable social issues.
In line with managing government relations, the division also supports the Health Chief Executives Forum and the NSW Health Ministerial Advisory Committee. The division also supports the NSW Health response to aged care and disability reforms and works with the Australian Government, local health districts and other key providers to influence and respond to reforms in the aged care and disability sectors.
The System Sustainability and Performance Division leads the monitoring and management of overall health system performance and coordinates purchasing arrangements with NSW public health services. It is a critical interface with local health districts, specialty health networks, the pillars and other health organisations for understanding and supporting the delivery of high-quality and safe care for the residents of NSW.
The division’s functions are divided between teams devoted to the system: information and analytics, purchasing, performance support and management. The division supports performance improvement strategies and statewide initiatives to improve service delivery. It oversees the management of surgery waiting lists, specialist outpatient services, the Hospital in the Home service and emergency access service delivery. The division leads the system-level strategy for patient and carer experience
The Regional Health Division supports the NSW Government's commitment to improving health outcomes and access to health services for people living in regional, rural and remote NSW. The division aims to strengthen and promote regionally-based, patient-centred approaches to the delivery of health services in regional NSW.
For more information, visit Regional Health.
The Clinical Innovation and Research Division provides a central point for co-ordination and strategy setting, to drive focus on statewide research and innovation priorities.
The State Health Services Functional Area Co-ordinator represents all health services on the State Emergency Management Committee and is the key liaison between NSW Health and our partner agencies in delivering whole of government emergency responses. The HSFAC also holds responsibility for leading the implementation of recommendations of a number of key statewide reviews.