ForHealth bags two major wins at Healthcare Asia Awards

The company believes every Australian has the right to high-quality healthcare.

Primary care services provider ForHealth has won the Primary Care Provider of the Year - Australia and the Clinical Service Initiative of the Year - Australia titles at the recently held Healthcare Asia Awards for its initiatives in responding to the COVID crisis, addressing the gap in care for women, and its innovative model to deliver care in the right place at the right time.

For the company, there was arguably no better way to demonstrate how it lives its mission than its response to COVID-19.

ForHealth rolled out nationally-coordinated triage and ‘track and trace’ protocols, which allowed it to keep its doors open in almost every centre even during the peak of the pandemic. This meant that the most vulnerable patients were still able to see their general practitioner (GP) face-to-face when most practices around had closed.

Upon the availability of vaccines, the company invested A$1m in training nurses to be able to immunise patients and rapidly stood up 83 vaccine clinics. It was able to deliver more than 10,000 vaccines per week and almost 500,000 in total during its peak run.

The frontline heroes were supported by senior managers who also rolled up their sleeves and volunteered at weekends in PCR testing clinics in the locked-down communities it served.

To recognise the serious toll that the pandemic took on GPs who faced the crisis, ForHealth also launched its internal well-being programme to help practitioners address psychological, financial, and physical causes of clinician burnout.

Meanwhile, the company believes that all Australians have the right to access care. In line with this, ForHealth launched the first-ever national network of women’s health GPs in Australia to ensure that all women can access specialised care when they need it.

Led by Dr Sneha Wadhwani, the company has brought together GPs who are passionate about women’s health to offer a consistent, personalised service in all areas of women’s health – including contraception, endometriosis, fertility, pregnancy, and menopause. These GPs are supported by dedicated facilities and a multidisciplinary team of physios, dieticians, nurses, and specialists.

“ForHealth embraces diversity and innovation as it places patient care and clinical standards at the heart of its purpose. Cultivating and developing clinical leadership as a key driver in this, it offers more than a vocation, but a movement I am excited and proud to be part of,” Wadhwani said.

ForHealth has also launched seven new urgent care centres, in a first-of-its-kind partnership with state governments, local hospitals, and ambulance providers. This service comes as Australia is challenged by the limited access to GPs after hours and will significantly help reduce the burden on the emergency departments. 

These urgent care centres are open for extended hours seven days a week to help offload strained emergency departments (ED). The service has seen over 2,300 patients since its opening, as of writing. The company says this is equivalent to saving the healthcare system an estimated A$1.6m in avoidable attendance in EDs.

Healthcare Asia Awards aims to honour hospitals, clinics and other healthcare providers that have risen above the challenges and made a remarkable impact by innovating and reinventing initiatives to better serve patients and protect employees.