The Federal Government has welcomed the appointment of Dr Diane Watson as the inaugural Chief executive Officer of the National Health Performance Authority (NHPA).

 

“I welcome Dr Watson to this important new role, which will see Australia join a small group of countries which have accelerated improvements in healthcare by publishing timely, accurate and comparable healthcare information,” Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said.

 

The authority, established under the National Health Reform Act 2011, is charged with reporting on the performance of all local hospital networks, public and private hospitals and primary healthcare organisations across the country.

 

Dr Watson was the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the NSW Bureau of Health Information, where she set the standard for providing publicly available reports and information on NSW healthcare.

Before coming to Australia in 2009, Dr Watson worked at the Health Council of Canada which was established to monitor and report to Canadians on the performance of their health system

 

The authority's first reports are due in late 2012 or early 2013 and will focus on indicators which already have nationally consistent information available.