Using This Manual

About the manual

This Manual is designed for use by all NT Aboriginal Primary Health Care Services regardless of their constitutional status. It is also likely to be useful to health services in other jurisdictions especially in regard to policy and procedure and recrutiment proformas. Commonwealth legislation will apply nationwide, but, of course, State and Territory legislative requirements will vary.

PHC services vary in size, staffing, location and climate but all have a majority of Aboriginal clientele. The board of management structures also vary and these are referred to throughout the manual by the generic term health board.

The manual provides guidelines for policy development with the intent that health services use and modify the information in the manual to suit local needs and to ensure that they are both relevant and workable in the local context. However, many practices will need to comply with legislative requirements and these are highlighted in the manual.

Accreditation of health services is likely to become mandatory within the next 5-10 years. As these requirements become clearer a section will be added to this site that will assist services in this process.

The manual includes:

a checklist of policies that can be used by services to prioritise their policy and procedure development process
a suggested process for the continuing development and maintenance of policies and procedures
draft policies & procedures for adaptation by health services
an overview of legal issues and requirements
links to relevant internet sites
a list of useful resources and organisations

How to use the manual

The manual can be used to develop policies and procedures for the consideration of community health boards.

Links

There are frequent areas of overlap in the manual. For instance, many issues such as Staff and Work Health involve aspects that are both a matter of local policy and legal requirements. The manual uses an internal cross-referencing system that will enable the user to readily identify other sections of the manual that are relevant to the issue at hand.

The manual also links to relevant external sites. This increases the currency of the manual in that it will link to various government sites that will be more or less up-to-date. Note that these external links will open in a separate window. This allows the user to explore the external site but to easlily return to this site by simply closing the external site, or clicking on the AMSANT Manual site in the task bar. Note that porformas in Word format will also open in a separate window in Word.

This manual should be bookmarked in the browser by the administrator as a readily accessible tool for policy development. Each service should, ideally use this manual to develop their own - containing health service policies and procedures that have been approved by the health board. These should be readily accessible to health board members, community members and staff and incorporated into orientation programs.

The development of policies and procedures is a continuing process, and a system will be required to replace updated polices or add new ones as new issues emerge.

Printing

There are 2 methods you can use for printing sections you want hardcopies of.

Print from web page

Whilst on the web page with the information you want, click on File on Menu and select Print Preview. This will show you what will be printed.

Note that some web pages translate to many (eg 40+) printed A4 pages. To select just the sections you want, browse the web page in Print Preview using the page counter on the top menu. Take note of the page numbers you want. To print these, click on Print on the top menu. A Print Dialogue box appears. Select the page numbers you want in the Print Range section, and click OK.

Print from word processor (eg Word)

Whilst on the web page with the information you want, place the cursor at the beginning of the section you want to print. Whilst holding down the left mouse button, drag the cursor to the end of the section you want. Note that this section will become highlighted. With the mouse pointer in the highlighted section click on the right mouse button and select Copy from the menu that appears. (Note if you click on the left mouse button before copying, you will lose the selected section).

Open your word processor (eg Word) into a new document, and again click on the right mouse button and select Paste from the menu that appears. You can then print this in the normal way.

Development of Policy and Procedures

The health board has ultimate responsibility for the health service and specifically for determining policies. The administrator has responsibility for implementing policies as well as the day to day administration of the service. It is, therefore, important that the health board is able to set appropriate policies, and that staff have input into policies that will impact on their work. The central themes in developing new or changing existing policies are that:

they adhere to the health service’s expressed philosophy and purpose
they reflect the perceptions, needs and priorities of the community
they are consistent with legislative requirements
they assist management and staff to perform their duties and obligations
they have maximum possible benefit to the health service’s client group
they may need to change as the community need and health service changes
they are practical

Process

Step 1. Prioritising policies to be developed.: If a service has no or few policies in place, there will be a need to determine which policies are most urgently needed. The checklist in the manual can be used in this process. Both the health board and staff should have early input in the development of the priority list. This can be achieved through health board and staff meetings and the circulation of a suggested list. The final priority list should be approved by the health board.
Step 2. Policy development: A draft from this manual should be initially modified to suit the local service by the administrator or other designated staff member. This should then be circulated for comments, and if appropriate, discussed at health board and staff meetings. A realistic date should be set for feedback, and a final draft to be presented to the health board.
Step 3. Health Board Endorsement: The final draft should be presented and explained to the health board and if necessary modified before final endorsement.
Step 4. Incorporation into health service manual, and inform staff and community: Once endorsed the administrator should inform staff and community members.

Broad guidelines

All activities associated with policy development should be the responsibility of one staff member, usually the administrator, whose role is to facilitate the development process including determining which policies have priority, and the dissemination of drafts to be presented to the health board for consideration. In larger services, a formal sub-committee may be formed to oversee the process.
The health board, community members and staff should have the opportunity for offering input into the policies being developed.
Legislative requirements must be incorporated into policies.
PHC best practice should be considered in developing policies.
Final drafts of policies must be approved by the health board before they officially apply. However, many procedures are a matter of administrative and PHC best practice and will not require formal health board consideration.
Health board approved policies are binding to all staff, including visiting staff and should be incorporated into the health services Policy and Procedures Manual and Orientation Programs for new staff and board members.
The administrator should keep a dated electronic master copy to facilitate updating manuals.
A copy of the Policy and Procedures Manual should be a readily available to staff, board members and community members in the clinic, staff room, and other appropriate areas.
Changes to policies need to follow the same process as the development of new policies.
Cost implications of policies should be considered early in the planning stage.
Policies and procedures should always be clearly marked with their version and date of application.
Any staff or community member who believes a particular policy needs to be developed or changed should bring it to the attention of the administrator and/ or other staff so that the suggestion can be included in the prioritising process.
New or revised policies or procedures must be included in all copies of the health service manual (including electronic and hard copies), and all old versions removed and archived.