ART honours Queensland public service teams at Premier's Awards

Australian Retirement Trust recently had the privilege of honoring some amazing public service teams through our sponsorship of the annual Premier’s Awards for Excellence, an award we have supported since 2014.

The Premier's Awards for Excellence celebrate the outstanding achievements and leadership of those in Queensland's public service, and we're proud to see two Queensland Health teams recognised for their commitment to building healthier communities through the award that the QSuper team, as part of Australian Retirement Trust (ART), sponsors − the Better Health and Wellbeing Services award.

ART Chief Financial Officer Anthony Rose was onstage to congratulate the winners of the awards for 2022, alongside Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Better Health and Wellbeing Services award

The winner of the Better Health and Wellbeing Services award category was Queensland Health’s response during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Declaration.

Queensland Health Deputy Director-General Dr Helen Brown¹ said that in the face of the unprecedented challenge of COVID-19 to the health of Queenslanders and health system capacity, tens of thousands of staff working across Queensland Health mobilised together to prepare the state.

The entire Queensland Health system focused its efforts on continuing to deliver world-class and equitable frontline health and wellbeing services to all Queenslanders, Ms Brown said.

She said Queensland Health’s successful response under the declared emergency was achieved through multiple legislative, regulatory, policy, and funding changes. However, equally powerful was the system-wide reforms leveraged by the response including virtual wards and telehealth to deliver care closer to home, dynamic workforce models, and strengthened partnerships and pathways with other health service providers.

Better Health and Wellbeing Services category – highly commended

The Queensland Health Ambassador Program (Queensland Health) received a highly commended award in the Better Health and Wellbeing Services category at the Premier’s Awards.

The Government¹ said violence against healthcare workers was an increasing phenomenon, with complexities arising from numerous medical conditions that manifest into aggression.

As Australia’s only dedicated unit tasked with developing, trialling and implementing strategies to reduce occupational violence, the Queensland Occupational Violence Strategy Unit was transforming the way clinicians viewed healthcare security officers, while making clinical areas safer, the Government said.

The Queensland Health Ambassador Program sees specifically recruited, covert healthcare security officers embedded in clinical areas to work alongside the multidisciplinary team. Ambassadors are empathetic, patient advocates, who have a genuine desire to support patients and their families through their journey across a complex health system.

The program has demonstrated success in emergency departments, acute mental health units, hospital settings, and residential care facilities, with reactive security interventions reduced by 80%, the Government said.

The QSuper team, as part of Australian Retirement Trust, is proud to support the Premier’s Awards, with a large number of Queensland Government employees being QSuper account holders. We take pride in supporting those who support our communities.

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1. Queensland Government, The Premier's Awards for Excellence, accessed 28 April 2023.