Social innovation in health response: A rare case of social enterprise meeting rural health needs

Primary healthcare delivery is one of the wicked problems impacting both developed and developing countries. Overcoming geographical remoteness is partly a challenge that may be addressed in coming decades by technological advancement: faster more affordable transport linking geographically remote regions may render current disadvantage meaningless; alternatively, e-medicine is already making headway in bridging the rural health gap, although such advances face resistance as a result of professional bodies representing physicians and specialist medical providers attempting to protect their professional boundaries. This case study shows an organisational innovation, an approach offering a middle path to addressing rural health deficits. Australia is one of the most sparsely populated regions on the planet and faces severe logistical and personnel challenges in delivering health to its remote regions. Queensland is the nation’s most decentralised state, with roughly half of its population of 4.7 million living outside the state capital, Brisbane. Central Highlands Healthcare Ltd (CHH) is unusual in the health space in Australia in that it is the only social enterprise operating as a primary healthcare clinic in rural Queensland. A limited public company established with an explicit social purpose, CHH operates with a volunteer board and is community-owned, with all retained earnings reinvested in the local economy. The case study is an example of social disrupters challenging the status quo and successfully constructing a new way to deliver primary health services in a rural setting.