Rethinking Healthcare Delivery: What the NSW Funding Inquiry Means for Health Leaders
Digital Strategy and Transformation Partner
Rethinking Healthcare Delivery: What the NSW Funding Inquiry Means for Health Leaders
In May 2025, the Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding delivered a landmark report on the future of healthcare in New South Wales. Led by Justice Richard Beasley SC, the report presents a powerful case for reshaping how healthcare is planned, funded, delivered, and measured across the state.
At Geode, we work with healthcare leaders who are navigating these very challenges - translating strategy into delivery, connecting digital investment with frontline care, and creating systems that work for clinicians and patients alike. This blog post distils what this Inquiry means for you and how Geode can help.
A System Under Pressure - But Full of Potential
The Inquiry was clear: NSW has a well-managed and well-funded public health system. But the cracks are showing. From escalating workforce burnout to fragmented digital systems, the report outlines a series of structural issues that cannot be solved with marginal change.
Here are some key themes:
1. Workforce Planning Is Urgent and Strategic
- Health staff are stretched thin, with reports of fatigue, outdated rostering practices, and inflexible employment arrangements.
- The system lacks a central function to forecast, plan, and shape the future health workforce across NSW.
- There is no single source of truth for workforce data to support decision-making.
How Geode Can Help
Geode supports agencies in building the planning frameworks and data foundations to shift from reactive rostering to proactive workforce design. Whether that’s aligning enterprise HR systems or designing data-driven operating models, we bring the structure, clarity, and leadership required.
2. Funding Models Need to Support Outcomes, Not Activity
- Existing funding mechanisms are complex, siloed, and often reinforce transactional delivery models.
- Local Health Districts face misaligned incentives - being asked to reduce hospital admissions without funding for community-based alternatives.
- There is a call for more flexible, transparent, and equitable funding aligned to population health needs.
How Geode Can Help
We help organisations move beyond compliance reporting and toward investment modelling that ties funding to measurable outcomes. Our cost-risk planning models support optioneering, trade-off analysis, and decision-making that connects the CFO’s lens with clinical and operational realities.
3. Digital Needs to Work Across the Whole System
- NSW Health has invested in major digital initiatives like the Single Digital Patient Record (SDPR), but integration across Affiliated Health Organisations (AHOs) and community services remains limited.
- Inconsistent data sharing is creating barriers to care coordination, especially for vulnerable populations.
- There is a need for interoperable digital platforms that support whole-of-system visibility, patient access, and clinical workflow integration.
How Geode Can Help
We bring delivery experience across electronic medical records, system integration, and whole-of-government digital strategy. From defining architectural principles to coordinating legacy decommissioning, we focus on execution, not just aspiration.
4. Decision-Making Requires Better Information, Faster
- The Inquiry highlights delays and bottlenecks in procurement, planning, and implementation.
- Frontline innovation is hampered by governance processes that are not fit for purpose in complex, dynamic environments.
- Leaders lack timely, actionable insight from the data their systems already collect.
How Geode Can Help
Geode supports the shift to evidence-based, agile governance. We help define governance models that enable rapid, safe, and effective decision-making. We also develop custom tools to surface insights in real time - from dashboards and scenario models to integrated risk assessments.
What This Means for Healthcare Executives and Program Leaders
If you are responsible for delivering reform, implementing digital infrastructure, or shaping the future of healthcare delivery, the Inquiry confirms what you already know:
- Small fixes are not enough.
- Now is the time for joined-up thinking, coordinated planning, and investment in foundational capabilities.
This isn’t just about patching problems. It’s an opportunity to:
- Rebuild trust in the system by delivering visible, patient-centred change
- Reallocate investment toward what delivers value
- Make technology and data work together - at scale, and across silos
- Enable a more supported and sustainable workforce
How Geode Supports System Reform
Geode Solutions brings experience from major reforms across Australia’s health and justice sectors. We work with agencies to design, fund, and deliver programs that:
- Are aligned to policy and operational outcomes
- Support multi-stakeholder engagement and co-design
- Translate strategy into delivery through pragmatic governance, controls, and tooling
- Connect funding, risk, resourcing, and delivery in one view
We don’t just write strategies - we build the scaffolding that makes them deliverable.
Final Thoughts
The Special Commission of Inquiry has given NSW a moment of clarity. It’s not a question of whether change is needed - it’s a question of how quickly and effectively we can get there.
Geode stands ready to partner with health leaders across NSW to build that future - systematically, collaboratively, and with clear outcomes in sight.
If you’d like to explore how we can help you deliver on the Inquiry’s recommendations, get in touch.
hello@gogeode.com
Digital Strategy and Transformation Partner
Geode Solutions helps organizations design, fund, and deliver complex digital transformation initiatives. Our work spans strategy, architecture, procurement, delivery, and advisory services across Australia.