June 11, 2024
On the evening of 27th May, the Queensland Reconciliation Awards were held in Cairns with Apunipima and Torres & Cape Hospital & Health Service (TCHHS) winning an award together in the Health and Wellbeing category for Cape York Kidney Care (CYKC) which provides remote outreach services.
Established in 2019, the CYKC model was designed to provide a conduit between high-level nephrology (kidney) services and remote primary care services, such as those delivered by Apunipima. This program is the first of its kind in Australia, combining First Nations Health Workers and Practitioners from Apunipima with service delivery from CYKC to provide holistic and culturally-safe nephrology services and improve health engagement in general.
Napranum Primary Health Care (PHC) Manager Debra Jia accepted the award on behalf of Apunipima and thanked CYKC for being a great teammate.
“It’s great to be recognised for the hard work that everyone has put into this program, we have such a great relationship with the team at CYKC and that makes this program run so smoothly from our end,” Mrs Jia said.
Mrs Jia was also quick to praise Apunipima staff both on the ground and at head office in Cairns.
“I’d also like to thank all the clinical staff in Napranum and our other PHCs who have worked on this program and have put in the hard yards engaging with clients and getting them ready for nephrology. Also a big thanks to Zeleke Fisher and Apunipima’s Integrated Team Care unit who handle all the referrals from Cairns,” she said.
