Record series
Board of Directors Minutes and Agenda Papers
VPRS 17474
1995 - 2004
Closed
North Melbourne
Agencies
This record series was created by:
Women's and Children's Health Care Network (Women's and Children's Health from 2000) ( VA5016 ): 1995 - 2004
Agencies responsible for this record series: The Royal Womens Hospital ( VA 1241 ): 2004 - present
Date Range
Series date range: 1995 - 2004
Series in custody:
1995 - 2004
Contents in custody:
1995 - 2004
Function / Content
This series comprises The Women's and Children's Health Care Network and Women's and Children's Health Board of Directors' Minutes and Agenda Papers. A new Board of Directors was instituted in August 1995 to manage this Network formed from the merger of the Royal Women's Hospital and Royal Children's Hospital. The Women's and Children's Health Care Network was one of seven (later more) Health Care Networks formed from the 35 independent hospitals in Melbourne. The Network system was established by the Kennett Government under the Health Services (Metropolitan Hospitals) Act 1995.On 1 July 2000 The Women's and Children's Health Care Network was replaced by the new legal entity Women's and Children's Health, after the 1999 Ministerial Review of Health Care Networks recommended a new governance and management structure for metropolitan hospitals. Under the Health Services (Governance) Act 2000, this "health service" was established with a new Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer to manage The Royal Women's Hospital and the Royal Children's Hospital. The Board of Directors of Women's and Children's Health was dissolved prior to the disaggregation of this combined health service on 1 July 2004.
In 1997 the paediatric, obstetric and gynaecological services at Sunshine Hospital became part of the Network, in a partnership with North Western Health Care Network. Under the new governance arrangements for metropolitan hospitals, during the 2000/2001 financial year, Sunshine Hospital's maternity services were realigned with Western Health and no longer part of Women's and Children's Health.
Under the Health Services Act 1988 the Directors of The Women's and Children's Health Care Network were appointed by the Governor-in-Council and were directly accountable to the then Minister of Health and Community Services. The Board comprised eight members including the office bearer positions of chairman, deputy chairman and treasurer. Board meetings were scheduled on a monthly basis.
In November 1996 The Women's and Children's Health Care Network Annual Report records that there were three categories of sub-committees that reported to the Board: Network; Royal Children's Hospital; Royal Women's Hospital. Throughout the Network period changes in the governance structure were reflected in the representation of Board sub-committees. An example of this is when in July 2000 the Finance, Clinical Improvement, and Quality Committees were incorporated into the full Board. These functions later reverted to being managed by separate sub-committees.
At its inception, the Network had seven committees: Audit; Strategic Planning; Medical Appointments; Ethics - Human (separate for each hospital); Ethics - Animal (again separate for Women's and Children's). The Royal Women's Hospital had eight committees : Hospital Executive; Infection Control Hospital; Quality Improvement; Graduate; Community Advisory; Occupational Health and Safety; Pharmacy; Archives. The Royal Children's Hospital had nine committees: Executive; Archives; Building and Space; Studies Emergency Planning; Infection Control; Junior Medical Staff; Occupational Health and Safety; Community Advisory; Scholarships.
The Board Secretary was responsible for taking minutes of each meeting and distributing the Agenda Papers to both Board Members and Attendees (hospital CEO, respective organisations, Executive Directors of both hospitals and other senior executives as needed) prior to each meeting. The unsigned minutes of each Board meeting were distributed with the agenda papers for the next meeting. After the minutes were approved they remained with those agenda papers. Minutes from the Network and hospital specific sub-committees, were included among the agenda papers for each Board Meeting. However, the representation of the committees is inconsistent as the impetus was on the minute secretaries of each committee to submit copies to be tabled at Board meetings.
Both the Board Secretary and the Executive Office were located at the Royal Women's Hospital for the duration of the Network. Both the Royal Women's and Royal Children's Hospitals hosted the Board of Directors Meetings.
Series History
Prior to transfer to Public Record Office Victoria, the records in this series were maintained as part of the Royal Women's Hospital (RWH) Archives. They were part of RWH Series number 0347.
