Five pitches, five winners, and over $80,000.

More than $80,000 was awarded during the final 2022 Sydney Local Health District staff innovation challenge, The Pitch, with the judges deciding to support all five projects competing for funds. 

The Waterloo Health and Wellbeing Peer Education Project received $25,000 for its community-led peer education model - which was praised for the delivery of health literacy to the community. 

The District’s Priority Populations and Places Manager Erin Miller said the money meant the project would be able expand. 

“It’s going to teach the community about health, and how to stay out of hospital, how to stay healthy and how to support each other,” she said. 

Yaralla House was awarded $25,000, or the equivalent in-kind support, to provide the property with updated digital technology – the heritage nature of the building has meant it doesn’t currently have Wi-Fi. 

The funding will help the facility’s patients better connect with each other, their families and friends. 

“To be able to access technology, we actually haven’t been able to because we don’t have Wi-Fi... it’s going to be something they don’t even understand that they’ve missed until all of sudden they have access to... all this new technology,” Rebecca Norris, a Clinical Nurse Specialist, said. 

The Croydon Health Centre received $20,000 for its Therapeutic Space for Children and Families who have experienced violence, abuse and/or neglect, including child sexual assault.  

“It’s going to make a community health centre where they feel welcomed, feel comfortable and feel safe and start to heal,” Nicole Smith, Acting Team Leader for the Child Protection Counselling Service, said 

Concord Hospital’s Surgical Superintendent Dr Rebecca Lendzion was awarded $6000 for the Eagle View Ultrasound which will enable clinicians to provide point-of-care imaging in the palm of their hand, transforming care at the hospital.  

And RPA Anaesthetics Trainee Dr Benjamin Wan received $5000 for Operation Sustainability – Recycling in the Operating Theatres, which aims to reduce theatre wastage. 

“These pitches were really special. They really touched us. The fabulous work makes us very proud,” Dr Teresa Anderson, the District’s Chief Executive, said. 

“Every one of those pitches will make a real difference, and that’s because of our fabulous staff. Every day it just makes us so proud,” Dr Anderson said. 

The judging panel consisted of Dr Anderson, the District’s Director of Clinical Services Integration and Population Health Lou-Anne Blunden, Chief Information Officer Richard Taggart, Head of the Atherosclerosis and Vascular Biology Research Laboratories at the ANZAC Research Institute and Clinical Director of the Cardiovascular Stream Professor Len Kritharides, Clinical Director of Public Health Clinical Associate Professor Leena Gupta and the RPA Consumer and Community Advisory Network’s Christa Hann.  

Since The Pitch began in 2014, the District has received more than 260 entries from across more than 50 departments and awarded more than $1.6 million funding for in innovative ideas aimed at improving the care the District provides for its patients, their families and the community.