Clinical and executive leadership
Health service experience to connect strategy, quality, workforce and implementation.
Health leadership.
From strategy to
service delivery.
FIG Health NT is a health consulting and service leadership firm with Northern Territory roots and a national outlook. We help organisations shape reform, establish services and improve the way care is delivered.
30+ yearsFounder experience across clinical practice and health leadership
Clinical to systemNursing, midwifery, operations, commissioning and reform
Territory groundedExperience across the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland
Expertise for the whole health organisation.
Advice, executive support and implementation shaped around your priorities.
PEOPLE, PLACE AND PARTNERSHIP
Better services begin
with listening.
Geography, language, culture and local leadership shape how care is experienced. Our approach brings community perspectives into service decisions and supports culturally responsive practice.
Our services
Practical expertise for stronger health organisations.
Choose a service to explore how we can help.
BERNIE CUMMINS / FOUNDERClinical depth.
System leadership.
Bernie Cummins brings more than 30 years of experience across clinical practice, operational management and strategic health leadership.
A registered nurse and midwife, Bernie understands healthcare from the bedside to the boardroom. Her career spans acute care, primary care, government health systems and commissioning across South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory.
Her leadership experience includes senior roles within SA Health, hospital nursing and midwifery leadership, executive roles in primary health networks and chief executive leadership of primary and urgent care services.
FIG draws on that breadth to help Australian health organisations navigate complex decisions, strengthen services and put reform into practice. Bernie brings the judgement of a clinician, the accountability of a chief executive and an understanding of what implementation asks of people.
Reform and service leadership +
Her career has included statewide outpatient and patient-flow reform, integrated care and hospital avoidance, rural service innovation, commissioning and the establishment and expansion of primary and urgent care services.
Her experience also includes maternity service redesign and consumer involvement, connecting clinical expertise with the perspectives of people who use health services.
Professional foundations +
Registered nurse and registered midwife. Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Fellow of the Australasian College of Health Service Management. Honorary Fellow of Menzies.
Experience earned
inside the system.
FIG’s offer is grounded in leading services, supporting clinical teams and working through the operational realities of change. The focus is practical: clear decisions, accountable delivery and improvement that can be sustained.
CULTURAL SAFETY & CONSULTATION
Led by listening.
Accountable to people.
Culture, community and self-determination belong at the centre of health service design and delivery.
Cultural safety is experienced by the person receiving care.
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, cultural safety is determined by individuals, families and communities. It requires organisations to examine racism, power, assumptions and the everyday experience of accessing care.
Our commitment is to support change in leadership, service design and practice, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices shaping what matters and how progress is judged.
Informed by Ahpra’s cultural safety principles.
Community authority.
Local relationships.
In the Northern Territory, one approach cannot speak for every community. Country, language, local governance, family connections and the practical realities of distance must inform the work.
For engagements involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, our approach is to agree appropriate Aboriginal leadership, local facilitation and decision-making arrangements before consultation begins. We respect community-controlled organisations and work within the authority and protocols agreed for each engagement.
FIG contributes health leadership and organisational expertise. Cultural authority remains with the relevant people and communities.
What this means in practice
Consultation with a clear purpose
Be explicit about which decisions are open to influence, who needs to be involved and how contributions will be used. Build on existing relationships and previous consultations to reduce unnecessary repetition.
Participation that people can access
Plan with local partners for language and interpreter needs, accessible information, appropriate settings, participant remuneration and enough time for relationships. Respect preferences about family involvement, gender, privacy and how conversations take place.
Shared design and decision-making
Bring community knowledge, lived experience, clinical insight and service evidence together. Agree who decides, how different views are represented and how proposed changes will be tested with the people affected.
Accountability beyond the conversation
Return findings in accessible formats, explain what has changed and what has not, and agree ongoing feedback. Establish responsibilities for responding to racism, improving access and addressing concerns raised about care.
Respect for knowledge and information
Agree consent, ownership, access and use of information before collecting it. Respect Indigenous data sovereignty and community expectations. Where an engagement includes research, establish the relevant ethical review and governance requirements.
From commitment
to everyday delivery.
We can support engagement planning, community-informed models of care, access and referral pathway reviews, governance and feedback arrangements, and implementation plans with clear responsibilities.
Specialist cultural capability work is shaped with appropriately qualified Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners and local partners agreed for the engagement. We also consider the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse communities, people with disability and people whose experiences are often missing from service decisions.
Principles informing our approach
AMSANT: Pathways to Community Control
AIATSIS: ethical research principles
These are reference resources, not statements of partnership or endorsement.
OUR PARTNERSHIP APPROACH
Experienced leaders.
Connected expertise.
A comprehensive consulting offer, shaped around the work that needs to be done.
The right people
for your priorities.
FIG partners with experienced Australian health service leaders and specialist advisers to bring together clinical, executive, operational and technical expertise.
Our model combines founder-led direction with the skills an engagement needs, from service planning and financial sustainability to digital delivery, workforce and community engagement. We agree the team, scope, responsibilities and specialist involvement with you at the outset.
Finance, data and technology
Specialist input to test service viability, inform investment and support responsible digital change.
Community and cultural expertise
Local relationships and appropriate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership to shape engagement and service design.
One agreed brief.
Clear accountability.
We define the outcomes, identify the expertise required and establish a practical delivery structure. Partner contributions are integrated into the engagement, with transparent responsibilities, communication and review points.
For clients, this means access to complementary expertise with a clear point of coordination. For delivery partners, it means working together around the needs of the organisation and the communities it serves.