Congratulations to the Chronic Illness Peer Support program (ChIPS) for being awarded the  Premier’s Excellence Award for: tackling chronic diseases and improving public health, part of this years Victorian Public Healthcare Awards. The awards were presented on Wednesday October 6th by the Premier, the Hon. John Brumby MP; Health Minister, the Hon. Daniel Andrews MP and Minister for Mental Health the Hon. Lisa Neville MP at a ceremony in the City. Reference group member and “ChIP-ERS” James Williams and Felipe Salas and ChIPS staff member Meagan Hunt accepted the award on behalf of the ChIPS community.

It’s an outstanding result for the ChIPS Programme and all those who have contributed. It’s also an excellent result for the RCH being recognised as one of the world’s leading paediatric hospitals with five finalists, three of which won their category at the ceremony. Judges of the Victorian Public Healthcare Awards said it was their toughest year yet with 310 applications for 18 awards. The RCH submitted 17 award applications and congratulations and thanks to all those who helped developed submissions. To read the full range of nominations go to the RCH staff recognition pages on the intranet.