Goulburn Valley Health’s Jabba the Bus highly commended at healthcare awards

By Anna McGuinness

Nov 2, 2022

Highly commended: Jabba the Bus was launched in September 2021 to help deliver COVID-19 vaccinations to communities. Photo by Megan Fisher

Goulburn Valley Health’s vaccination buses Jabba the Bus and Maxine Vaccine have been highly commended at this year’s Victorian Public Healthcare Awards.

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Jabba the Bus was rolled out in September 2021 to address barriers for communities accessing COVID-19 vaccinations and the mobile service is still in use more than a year later.

The award was one of two in the same category for GV Health, which was a co-contributor alongside the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and other health services for the winner, iCanEAT: Implementation of the CanEAT pathway for people with cancer, carers and health professionals.

GV Health chief executive Matt Sharp said the health service was proud to receive the awards.

“These awards recognise excellence and innovation across the state, and show that GV Health teams and initiatives are amongst the best in Victoria,” he said.

“Congratulations and thank you to all staff involved in these initiatives.

GV Health had two other initiatives as finalists, its community kitchen project in the Excellence in Public Sector Aged Care category, and possum skin cloaks in oncology in the Improving Aboriginal Health category.

The annual awards celebrate and acknowledge the achievements of Victorian healthcare workers and public health services over the past year.

It is the first time the awards have been held since the COVID-19 pandemic started, after being paused in 2020 and 2021.