Role Title: NSP Approvals System Intern
Organisation: Department of Health
Internship Period: Summer (November - December)
Location: East Perth
Needle and syringe programs (NSPs) are a public health measure that aim to reduce the transmission of blood-borne viruses by providing needles and syringes to people who inject drugs. NSPs are delivered by a range of government and non-government organisations, and by pharmacies, across Western Australia.
To operate an NSP, organisations require an NSP approval under the Medicines and Poisons Act 2014 and the Medicines and Poisons Regulations 2016. Applications to operate NSPs require approval by the Director of the Communicable Disease Control Directorate (CDCD), Department of Health.
A Microsoft Access database was developed many years ago to take and securely store details of organisations approved to operate an NSP, and to populate correspondence and approval certificates. Final documents are saved in the department's document management system (TRIM) but the Access database keeps a list of all current and past approved NSPs.
This role is to build a prototype for migrating the data to modern Microsoft tools to increase the efficiency of the process for issuing approvals and the functionality of the approval database. If time allows, the new system could be established, and the data migrated. A Power BI dashboard would be good too.
WA Health is now governed by the Health Services Act 2016.
The new legislation represents a significant reform in health, and is designed to modernise the way our health services are structured, governed and delivered; to promote better health, better care and better value to all Western Australians.
The legislation established the Department of Health as ‘System Manager’ for WA Health, providing stewardship, guidance and support to our health services using a collection of binding Policy Frameworks in 18 key areas of health service delivery, to ensure they provide consistent, efficient and effective services into the future.