Speaker Profiles

A general practitioner involved in health system change for more than a decade, Di is the Chair of the NSW General Practice Advisory Council, a member of the NSW Health Care Advisory Council and Co-Chair of the Primary and Community Health Advisory Committee.

Di also chairs WentWest: a large regional general practice training provider and one of only two such organisations to also manage divisional services. She has just stepped down after eight years as an RACGP Board member and Chair of the college’s NSW & ACT Faculty, and currently chairs the college’s National Presidential Task Force on Health System Reform.

Through NSW Health, Di is very involved in, and committed to, the evolution of HealthOne NSW, and sees this as a key strategy in building local partnerships between general practitioners, community health, other local services and the communities they serve. The development of a HealthOne community hub model in Mt Druitt is becoming a wonderful example of how such partnerships can form an effective local support platform for significantly disadvantaged patients, families and their carers while making health professionals’ lives more satisfying.

Robert is Director of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy and the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute at the Australian National University, Canberra. He works on a range of health policy and systems issues, including primary care, private health insurance, rural health and health workforce. He provides regular commentary on health reform issues.

Robert came to the ANU in 2004 from the Australian Department of Health and Ageing where he had many years experience as a senior administrator across many areas of health policy and program management. He was involved in the establishment and subsequent operations of the Australian Council on Safety and Quality in Health Care and the National Institute of Clinical Studies.