VPRS 17474 Board of Directors Minutes and Agenda Papers

This series comprises The Women's and Children's Health Care Network and Women's and Children's Health Board of Directors' Minutes and Agenda Papers. A new Board of Directors was instituted in August 1995 to manage this Network formed from the merger of the Royal Women's Hospital and Royal Children's Hospital. The Women's and Children's Health Care Network was one of seven (later more) Health Care Networks formed from the 35 independent hospitals in Melbourne. The Network system was established by the Kennett Government under the Health Services (Metropolitan Hospitals) Act 1995. On 1 July 2000 The Women's and Children's Health Care Network was replaced by the new legal entity Women's and Children's Health, after the 1999 Ministerial Review of Health Care Networks recommended a new governance and management structure for metropolitan hospitals. Under the Health Services (Governance) Act 2000, this "health service" was established with a new Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer to manage The Royal Women's Hospital and the Royal Children's Hospital. The Board of Directors of Women's and Children's Health was dissolved prior to the disaggregation of this combined health service on 1 July 2004. In 1997 the paediatric, obstetric and gynaecological services at Sunshine Hospital became part of the Network, in a partnership with North Western Health Care Network. Under the new governance arrangements for metropolitan hospitals, during the 2000/2001 financial year, Sunshine Hospital's maternity services were realigned with Western Health and no longer part of Women's and Children's Health. Under the Health Services Act 1988 the Directors of The Women's and Children's Health Care Network were appointed by the Governor-in-Council and were directly accountable to the then Minister of Health and Community Services. The Board comprised eight members including the office bearer positions of chairman, deputy chairman and treasurer. Board meetings were scheduled on a monthly basis. In November 1996 The Women's and Children's Health Care Network Annual Report records that there were three categories of sub-committees that reported to the Board: Network; Royal Children's Hospital; Royal Women's Hospital. Throughout the Network period changes in the governance structure were reflected in the representation of Board sub-committees. An example of this is when in July 2000 the Finance, Clinical Improvement, and Quality Committees were incorporated into the full Board. These functions later reverted to being managed by separate sub-committees. At its inception, the Network had seven committees: Audit; Strategic Planning; Medical Appointments; Ethics - Human (separate for each hospital); Ethics - Animal (again separate for Women's and Children's). The Royal Women's Hospital had eight committees : Hospital Executive; Infection Control Hospital; Quality Improvement; Graduate; Community Advisory; Occupational Health and Safety; Pharmacy; Archives. The Royal Children's Hospital had nine committees: Executive; Archives; Building and Space; Studies Emergency Planning; Infection Control; Junior Medical Staff; Occupational Health and Safety; Community Advisory; Scholarships. The Board Secretary was responsible for taking minutes of each meeting and distributing the Agenda Papers to both Board Members and Attendees (hospital CEO, respective organisations, Executive Directors of both hospitals and other senior executives as needed) prior to each meeting. The unsigned minutes of each Board meeting were distributed with the agenda papers for the next meeting. After the minutes were approved they remained with those agenda papers. Minutes from the Network and hospital specific sub-committees, were included among the agenda papers for each Board Meeting. However, the representation of the committees is inconsistent as the impetus was on the minute secretaries of each committee to submit copies to be tabled at Board meetings. Both the Board Secretary and the Executive Office were located at the Royal Women's Hospital for the duration of the Network. Both the Royal Women's and Royal Children's Hospitals hosted the Board of Directors Meetings. Series History Prior to transfer to Public Record Office Victoria, the records in this series were maintained as part of the Royal Women's Hospital (RWH) Archives. They were part of RWH Series number 0347.

本系列包含妇女儿童医疗保健网络（The Women's and Children's Health Care Network）及妇女儿童健康董事会的会议纪要与议程文件。1995年8月，新董事会成立，负责管理由皇家妇女医院（Royal Women's Hospital）与皇家儿童医院（Royal Children's Hospital）合并而成的该网络。妇女儿童医疗保健网络是墨尔本35家独立医院整合而成的首批7个（后增至更多）医疗保健网络之一，其体系由肯尼特政府依据《1995年医疗服务（都市医院）法案》（Health Services (Metropolitan Hospitals) Act 1995）设立。2000年7月1日，在1999年医疗保健网络部长级审查建议为都市医院采用新治理与管理架构后，妇女儿童医疗保健网络被新法人实体妇女儿童健康取代。依据《2000年医疗服务（治理）法案》（Health Services (Governance) Act 2000），该医疗服务机构成立，配备新董事会及首席执行官，负责管理皇家妇女医院与皇家儿童医院。2004年7月1日该合并医疗服务机构拆分前，妇女儿童健康董事会已解散。

1996年11月，妇女儿童医疗保健网络年度报告记载，向董事会汇报的下属委员会分为三类：网络层面、皇家儿童医院层面及皇家妇女医院层面。在网络存续期间，治理架构的变化体现在董事会下属委员会的构成上。例如，2000年7月，财务、临床改进及质量委员会曾并入董事会全体会议；这些职能随后又回归由独立下属委员会管理。

网络成立之初设有7个委员会：审计、战略规划、医疗任命、人类伦理（各医院独立设置）、动物伦理（妇女与儿童机构亦分别设置）。皇家妇女医院设有8个委员会：医院执行、医院感染控制、质量改进、研究生、社区咨询、职业健康与安全、药学、档案。皇家儿童医院设有9个委员会：执行、档案、建筑与空间、研究应急规划、感染控制、初级医护人员、职业健康与安全、社区咨询、奖学金。

董事会秘书负责记录每次会议纪要，并在会前向董事会成员及参会者（医院首席执行官、相关机构、两家医院的执行董事及其他按需参与的高级管理人员）分发议程文件。每次董事会会议的未签署纪要会随下次会议的议程文件一同分发；纪要获批后，将留存于对应议程文件中。网络层面及各医院专属下属委员会的纪要均纳入每次董事会会议的议程文件，但委员会纪要的提交并不一致，因是否提交副本至董事会会议审议取决于各委员会的纪要秘书。

在网络存续期间，董事会秘书及执行办公室均设于皇家妇女医院；董事会会议由皇家妇女医院与皇家儿童医院轮流承办。

系列历史：在移交维多利亚州公共档案馆（Public Record Office Victoria）前，本系列档案作为皇家妇女医院（RWH）档案的一部分被保存，属于RWH系列编号0347。