VPRS 17572 Board of Directors, Advisory and Board Committees Minutes and Agenda Papers

This series comprises the Minutes and Agenda Papers from The Royal Women's Hospital Board of Directors, Advisory and Board Committees. After nine years being part of a health care network with the Royal Children's Hospital, The Royal Women's Hospital became an became an independent health service with a new Board on 1 July 2004. The functions of the Board are set down in section 65S of the Health Services Act 1988. The Directors were also required to establish Board and Advisory Committees.The Health Services Governance and Accountability Act which passed Victorian Parliament on the 22 June 2004, enabled the disaggregation of Women's and Children's Health (formerly The Women's and Children's Health Care Network). The Royal Women's Hospital and the Royal Children's Hospital became separate legal entities whose role was to function as two specialist stand alone hospitals.The Board's initial role was to ensure the continuity of clinical operations and services of The Royal Women's Hospital and work with the administrator appointed for the transition, who performed the functions of the Board of Women's and Children's Health.During the Network period the number of Board and Advisory Committees had been dramatically reduced to meet the requirements of the Health Services Act. Many administrative functions which formerly had Board level representation prior to the Network e.g. research into human and animal ethics, continued on as executive level committees after the disaggregation of Women's and Children's Health.At its inception, the Board of Directors had eight committees: Community Advisory; Audit and Risk Management; Finance; Investment; Remuneration; Quality; Women's Health (Primary Care and Population Health) and RWH Redevelopment.The Board Secretary was responsible for taking minutes of each Committee meeting and distributing the Agenda Papers to both Board Members and Attendees (hospital CEO, and other senior executives as needed) prior to each meeting. The unsigned minutes of each meeting were distributed with the agenda papers for the next meeting. The approved minutes were filed with those agenda papers. Some hospital executive committees reported to the Board Committees and Advisory Committees and these minutes and / or reports from the executive may be found among the agenda papers for each Committee Meeting.As the role of the Board and Advisory Committees was to make recommendations to the Board of Directors, researchers will need to refer to Board of Directors minutes for final decisions on project proposals and allocation of resources.