Apunipima Cape York Health Council has inducted into the Queensland Aboriginal & Islander Health Council Hall of Fame at a ceremony last week.

Presented with the Quality in Governance Award, Apunipima was recognised because of the organisations commitment to ensuring good governance through community control.

Apunipima’s community control philosophy is demonstrated through the way it appoints its Board, made up of elected community members and skills based directors and how it holds itself accountable for quality service delivery through the establishment of community based Health Action Teams, volunteer community groups.

The Board have recently published the organisations Strategic Plan setting out clear objectives and measurables to be met by 2019 and the Health Action Teams and communities receive regular reports on the health of their communities and dictate each reporting period what appears in those reports.

Chairman of Apunipima, Thomas Hudson said, “We are delighted to have received this award that recognises our community control philosophy and the outcomes it is achieving in terms of improved access to health services, improved health literacy, engagement and accountability.

“We have a clear vision to become a community owned organisation that has achieved optimal wellness for Cape York people and we recognise the only way to do that is for health services across Cape York to become fully community controlled.

“We are committed to maintain strong governance systems and processes to make sure that Cape York people receive the best quality health services we can deliver."

Apunipima Cape York Health Council (Apunipima) is the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service for Cape York.  Based in Cairns, Apunipima was originally established in 1994 as an advocacy organisation, Apunipima has now grown into a health service delivery organisation providing maternal and child health, allied health, health promotion and medical officer services to the 11 remote communities of Cape York.

Apunipima operates the Mossman Gorge Primary Health Care Centre.