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The Department of Health’s (DH) approach to
statewide planning for energy efficiency is inadequate. It does not
have a documented policy or plan and lacks a strategic focus and a
coordinated approach. It also does not align with health services’
local planning.
While there have been improvements in energy
efficiency across the health system over the past seven years, the
lack of an adequate planning approach has potentially limited the
gains that could have been made. Specifically, DH's planning
approach limits its ability to demonstrate whether it is
appropriately allocating resources to areas of greatest need or
highest risk, and whether it is sufficiently prepared for emerging
challenges.
DH believes that individual health services
should be responsible for their own energy efficiency planning.
However, this approach is not conducive to optimising and driving
outcomes at a system level. Despite this stance, DH undertakes a
range of ad hoc centralised activities. These activities include
estimating cost pressures on health services to inform future
planning activities and investigating the feasibility of expanding
cogeneration energy supply—the simultaneous generation of two forms
of useful energy—to selected metropolitan and regional hospitals.
These activities confuse whether planning for energy efficiency is
a statewide or health service level activity.
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