The St George Clinical Council is a governance body within South Eastern Sydney Local Health District (SESLHD) that meets monthly to review clinical quality indicators, patient safety outcomes, service access data, and strategic health priorities for the St George hospital network.
The Council provides clinicians — including GPs — with a formal mechanism to participate in hospital governance. It brings together hospital department heads, clinical directors, community representatives, and primary care advocates to address shared challenges and opportunities in the local health system.
The Division's representative Dr Sara Whimster attends these monthly meetings, raises GP concerns around communication and patient access, and brings information back to our community about developments within the hospital system.
GPs interact with hospital services on a daily basis — sending referrals, receiving discharge summaries, following up on investigations, and managing patients post-admission. Without GP voices in hospital governance, the primary care perspective can be overlooked in decisions that directly affect continuity of care.
Our representative brings GP-specific feedback and concerns to Council meetings, advocating for improvements that benefit both GPs and their patients.
We review quarterly quality and safety data and provide a primary care lens on hospital performance metrics, particularly around readmissions, outpatient wait times, and ED presentations.
We raise systemic issues with discharge summary quality, specialist letter turnaround times, and gaps in outpatient-to-GP communication that affect continuity of care.
We advocate for clear, navigable referral pathways and appropriate access criteria, particularly for specialty areas where GPs frequently encounter barriers or confusion.
We contribute GP input to service planning consultations, ensuring that hospital service changes and new models of care are designed with primary care in mind.
If you're experiencing a recurring issue with St George Hospital — whether it's around referrals, discharge communications, ED processes, or outpatient care — our representative can raise it at the Clinical Council. Please get in touch via the Division office.
Contact the Division →