North West Hospital and Health Service has been awarded the “Rural/Remote Multidisciplinary Collaboration of the Year” at the National Rural and Remote Health Awards.
Our initiative “All In! Driving Down RHD Rates in Remote First Nations Communities” brings together Orange Sky Australia, Mornington Shire Council, Doomadgee Aboriginal Shire Council, North West Indigenous Community Social Services and our Public Health team to tackle one of the most devastating, yet preventable, diseases in remote Australia: Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD).
Rheumatic Heart Disease begins with an untreated Group A streptococcal infections, often caused by home/environmental factors and disproportionately affects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander remote communities. Left untreated, it can cause lifelong heart damage, heart failure and even death.
To change this trajectory, NWHHS stepped beyond traditional healthcare boundaries, partnering with Orange Sky Australia to deliver free, community-based laundry services in Doomadgee and Mornington Island and Mount Isa.
These bright orange laundry vans do far more than wash clothes: they create safe spaces for conversation, health education and trust-building.
The Orange Sky Laundry attendants in community facilitate critical laundry facilities as well as health education and social yarns to combat this chronic issue. They do more than tending to laundry, being a platform for building trust and engaging in meaningful conversations about health and wellbeing and connecting community members to wrap-around health services like the Healthy Skin Team.
As Acting Health Service Chief Executive Andrew Quabba shared:
“Providing laundry services is not the core business of a Hospital and Health Service, however we know that addressing social determinants and root causes to disease is a must if we are going to have any success in changing the trajectory of RHD cases.”
Executive Director of First Nations Health Christine Mann said this recognition goes far beyond celebration:
“National recognition for us means more than accolades. This has been a very personal and emotional journey for staff, partners and community.
In response to the tragic deaths in Doomadgee from severe Rheumatic Heart Disease, and being the subject of negative national media attention at the time, North West Hospital and Health Service committed to improving the clinical and cultural safety of care provided to our community.
This national recognition has been welcomed as an indicator to us that we have been noticed and acknowledged for the work we continue to do in response to the suffering and grief experienced by families and community members who have lost their loved ones to this disease, as those family members mattered.”
This award belongs to every person, in hospitals, council offices, laundry vans and community spaces, who continues to work so no family endures that heartbreak again.