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“The AMA (WA) called for a corporate governance review of WA Health early last year. In our submission to that inquiry, we came to the conclusion that there was no single person or entity that was actually operationally responsible for mental healthcare delivery in this State.

We feel the move by the corporate governance review to consolidate mental health and have a single point of responsibility for the execution and operational delivery of mental health is a good and positive thing. The AMA (WA) does recognise the need to ensure that WA mental health money is preserved, and the Government is also aware of the importance of mental healthcare delivery in this State.

The AMA (WA) will continue to work with the Government collaboratively to ensure that we get the best mental health outcomes for people in WA.

We still need to see the detail of exactly how mental health governance is going to work. But what we did have with mental health prior to this point was that there was no person or entity in Western Australia who was operationally responsible for the delivery of mental health.

It’s certainly the AMA (WA)’s position that the last six reviews into better mental health delivery in this State quite simply have not achieved any improvement because the corporate governance structure of WA Mental Health was inappropriate.

We feel that a new structure where there is better transparency, better responsibility, better coordination and better collaboration between all of the parties involved in mental healthcare delivery will result in better outcomes for the mental health of WA.”

The report can be found at https://ww2.health.wa.gov.au/~/media/Corp/Documents/About-us/Review/Independent-Governance-Review-Report.pdf