Health Consumers' Council WA

FREE RESOURCE 📢 Have you ever had to repeat your health story again and again? Your medications. Your appointments. Your support needs. Your medical history.

For many people, keeping track of important health information across different healthcare services can feel exhausting, especially when you are already managing illness, disability, stress, caring responsibilities, ageing, or language barriers.

That is why Health Consumers’ Council WA has developed a new Health Passport.

The Health Passport is a simple, practical tool that helps consumers and carers:
🔸 keep important health information together
🔸 communicate more easily with healthcare providers
🔸 feel more prepared for appointments and hospital visits
🔸 support better continuity of care

Sometimes small tools can make a real difference in helping people feel heard, respected, and understood in healthcare.

Download the FREE Health Passport here 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/fgalzueajo

This work also connects closely with HCCWA’s Diversity Dialogues initiative, which brings together consumers, carers, communities, and healthcare organisations to discuss how we can improve healthcare access and experiences for everyone in WA.

Our next Diversity Dialogues session will focus on improving access to care for older people from migrant and refugee backgrounds.

Learn more and register here 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/erfamqncaa

What is one thing that helps you feel more prepared or supported during healthcare appointments?

Why do consumer representatives matter more than ever in WA healthcare? 📢 Because healthcare works better when the people using the system are part of the conversation and decision making.

For more than 30 years, Health Consumers’ Council WA has supported and trained consumer representatives across Western Australia.

Patients, carers, and healthcare consumers who step into these roles bring lived experience into:
🔸 healthcare planning
🔸 service design
🔸 policy and reform discussions
🔸 quality improvement
🔸 committees and advisory groups

Consumer representative voices help healthcare organisations better understand the real experience of:
🔸 barriers to access
🔸 communication challenges
🔸 cultural safety
🔸 affordability pressures
🔸 what respectful care looks like in practice

This work often happens quietly, but it helps shape real decisions across the health system.

Consumer participation helps build safer, fairer, and more responsive healthcare for everyone.

Our latest article explores why consumer representation continues to matter in WA, and how HCCWA helps people build the confidence and skills to participate 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/olzqqricnk

What helps healthcare consumers feel genuinely heard in healthcare decision making?

How do we make healthcare more accessible for older migrants and refugees in WA? 📢 FREE EVENT 🎟️ HCCWA’s Diversity Dialogues

This session will explore how we can improve access to healthcare for older people from migrant and refugee backgrounds.

Many older migrants and refugees face additional barriers when accessing care, including language and communication challenges, unfamiliar healthcare systems, and difficulty finding culturally responsive support.

Health Consumers' Council WA Diversity Dialogues brings together consumers, carers, community members, healthcare workers, and organisations to discuss practical ways we can improve access to care together.

What helps people feel respected, safe, and understood in healthcare?

We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Register now 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/rfjdalzoak

Register your interest in our survey 📢 Share your experience of patient transport services in WA. Have you experienced any of the following?

🔸 Used a free or subsidised patient transport service to get to or from hospital, a clinic, or between homes
🔸Had significant difficulties with attending an important medical appointment at a clinic or hospital due to transport
🔸Have special requirements when travelling for medical appointments

Then we want to hear from YOU!

Successful applications will be offered an honorarium payment of $20 as a a gesture of appreciation for sharing your lived-experience.

If you know a person who may be interested in having their opinion heard please tag them in the comments.

Please share this with your networks and let's hear from the people who use non-urgent patient transport tell us could be improved, for us all.

Apply now 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/otmnndlfdj

Thanks to Sabine Winton MLA for meeting with us this week 📢 pictured here with our Executive Director, Clare, and Engagement Manager, Aboriginal Engagement Lead, Disability Engagement Lead, Tania - in our 32nd birthday week no less! 🎂

We shared early results from our winter survey on how people in WA are trying to stay well. What we are seeing from early analysis is that our community is taking action to stay healthy and well, but cost, access, and unclear information still shape choices.

We also discussed preventative health initiatives involving consumers, this ‘consumer-informed-prevention’ really matters, because prevention works best when it reflects what our communities actually deal with day to day. We'll share more from the survey soon.

What is helping you or your community stay well this winter?

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Learn how YOU can shape WA’s healthcare at our FREE online workshop 🫵 Tuesday 21 April

At Health Consumers’ Council WA, we believe healthcare should be fair, kind, and shaped by the people who use it. So, when health leaders make decisions, your opinion, voice, lived-experience matters.

That’s what a Consumer Representative does: share real experiences so healthcare works better for everyone. No qualifications needed, just your lived experience and a will to make a difference.

Join our FREE online workshop and learn how your story can spark change. Together, we can build a health system that truly listens.

Last chance to register 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/dovkrqjdmi

We hear from patients and carers who didn't realise the full extent of their healthcare costs, and need support on informed financial consent and medical bills.

Our latest blog breaks down in plain English what it means, what to ask, and what to do if something doesn't seem right.

Read more on our website 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/wlivtolkxg

Have you ever got a bigger than expected medical bill or been asked to pay upfront?

🎂 Today, as we mark our 32nd BIRTHDAY and World Health Day we are proud to be holding workshops with medical billing expert Dr Margaret Faux, author of the book 'How to Avoid the Medical Bill Rip Off!'

For 32 years we've stood with and supported Western Australians, and we'll keep pushing for a health system that is easier to understand, fairer to access and works for the people who use the system; you, me, all of us!

Thank you to everyone in our community and across the sector who continues to support our work to make healthcare fair.

If you are an advocate, community worker, or health professional supporting others to navigate healthcare it's your LAST CHANCE to register for our FREE workshop tomorrow Wed, 8 Apr, 9:30am - 11:30am AWST (online or in person) with the Dr Margaret Faux.

Hurry! 👉 https://events.humanitix.com/making-sense-of-medical-billing-insights-for-advocacy-professionals