22 May 2025
About
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) is a national organisation dedicated to supporting high-quality, safe health care for all Australians. The Commission leads and coordinates efforts across the country by identifying important issues, helping shape healthcare policies, and suggesting what should be focused on.
The Commission is jointly funded by the Commonwealth and state and territory governments and is governed by a Board. One of the Board’s sub-committees is the Primary Care Committee (PCC). Primary care is generally the first service people go to for health care outside of a hospital or specialist. This committee helps guide the Commission’s work on making primary health care safer, and to better connect primary health care with other care sectors.
The PCC role is to: advise and identify safety and quality issues affecting primary care delivery, help shape programs to suit the needs of primary and community care, and makes sure national patient safety initiatives are put into action effectively.
CHF, in collaboration with the Commission, is seeking expressions of interest from consumers who wish to contribute their perspectives to this important work by serving on the PCC.
The opportunity and your role
CHF, in partnership with the Commission, is seeking to appoint one (1) consumer representative to join the PCC.
Help the Commission understand safety and quality issues from a consumer’s perspective and suggest ways to improve access to safe, high-quality primary care.
Contribute to shaping programs so they better meet the needs of patients in the primary care sector.
Provide advice on how to clearly communicate safety and quality messages to consumers and healthcare providers.
Support national efforts to improve patient safety and encourage better collaboration between primary care and other parts of the health system.
Work with key organisations to strengthen consumer involvement in health care policy and program development.
The successful member will be a nominee, not representative, of CHF. They may advise and/or be accountable to CHF, and will be appointed for their skill and leadership capability.
Members are expected to actively participate in all meetings and share information in and of their own right.
The PCC meets three to four times per year, either online or in person at the Commission office in Sydney. The successful member will be appointed for a three-year term from 2025 – 2028.
The Commission will:
Provide a briefing and ongoing support to consumer representatives.
Remunerate consumers, including sitting fees for meetings, travel and accommodation costs, to support their participation. The sitting fee rates for meetings are:
0-2 hours: $388.40
2-3 hours: $582.60
Daily: $971.00
The Commission pays 11.5% superannuation on top of the sitting fees.
We encourage applications from individuals with lived experience in primary care, including those from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, rural and remote communities, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and people with disabilities.
We encourage applications from individuals with lived experience in primary care, including those from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, rural and remote communities, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and people with disabilities.
Complete our expression of interest form and if you have any queries, please contact the Consumer Engagement team, at admin@chf.org.au.
Expressions of Interest close at on Friday 13 June 2025 at 8am AEST.
