10 Year Impact Series: 2018-19 Population Health Highlights
Home / News & Opportunities / Latest news / Current post
October 29, 2025
2018-19 was a stand-out year for South Eastern Melbourne Primary Health network (SEMPHN), with practical ideas delivering important ways to help our community across south east Melbourne live healthier lives.
Some of these ideas included:
- Early detection: a mobile clinic brought breast screening to 1,000 women who might otherwise have missed out.
- Immunisation push: more than 1,500 free flu and whooping cough vaccines reached people at highest risk.
- Community coverage: Greater Dandenong recorded 95.77% herd immunity for children aged 12-15 months.
- Smarter after-hours care: one program averted more than 10,000 hospital admissions, saving $5.5 million, representing a 353% return on investment (ROI).
- A second after-hours project prevented 12,000 emergency department visits, saving $6.2 million – a 379% ROI.
- Cultural safety: 60 health professionals completed training accredited by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners to strengthen care for First Nations people.
These results show how targeted investment, frontline partnerships and data-driven planning turn resources into measurable impact.
Latest news
Recommendations from healthcare professionals play an important role in parents/guardians’ decisions about childhood vaccination. These recommendations are informed by the National Immunisation Program (NIP) schedule, which outlines the vaccinations recommended for all children in Australia.
A free vaccine to help protect babies against Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is available for eligible pregnant women in Australia.
The purpose of this activity is to ensure all patients prescribed medications commonly used for mental health conditions (e.g., antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers) have an appropriate, coded mental health diagnosis in their record. This supports safe prescribing, accurate clinical records, and quality improvement.
