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Our Charity Mission
Communities where everyone can realise optimal health and well-being is our vision. We do that by providing quality care no matter your postcode or your prognosis.
Health for good!
Our Charity Mission
The Mission Started Here
Almost twenty years ago, a handful of spirited doctors, researchers, and public health reformers came together for a rescue mission. At stake was the general practice within the Inala Community Health Centre. In 2005, it was facing closure.
The Rescue Team believed the Centre, serving some of Brisbane’s most vulnerable, had something too important to lose. That ‘something’ is the essence of who Sandstone Healthcare is today.
They had a vision to keep the community focus and teaching culture but to push further beyond normal general practice. Research. New thinking. Building systems that would keep improving how care is delivered and find ways to keep it sustainable.
It worked.
We’re now Sandstone Healthcare, but that rescue?
It’s still who we are. The vision and determination remain the same.
Over the years, many others who share our values have been inspired to join us. Same determination to make healthcare work for everyone so that no-one falls through the cracks.
Too often in healthcare profit and process come before the needs of people. At Sandstone we like to turn that around.
Tracey Johnson, CEO.
Our Not-for-Profit Model
The Inala Story
Inala is Queensland’s largest social housing community. It’s a diverse suburb where more than half of residents speak a language other than English at home and median household incomes sit well below the national average.
Medicare’s funding structure creates genuine challenges for practices serving communities like Inala. It doesn’t adequately account for the reality that comprehensive care for people managing complex chronic conditions, mental health issues, or requiring interpreter services simply takes longer.
Those five Medicare-funded allied health sessions per year through a Chronic Disease Management plan don’t stretch far when someone needs coordinated support from multiple practitioners. And while practices are legally required to provide interpreter services, there’s no Medicare funding to cover those costs.
At Sandstone Healthcare we strongly believe that all members of our community deserve comprehensive quality care regardless of how complex their personal situation might be.
We bulk bill everyone at Inala and this isn’t easy to sustain in the current funding environment. We offer continuity of care with your own GP and time for longer appointments when complexity demands it.
That’s how we aim to achieve Health for Good. This philosophy is what drives our award-winning journey: innovating, collaborating and advocating for improvements and changes to primary care provision, both locally and on a national scale.
So when you access any of Sandstone Healthcare’s practices or take-up subscriptions to our software or programs, you contribute to care at Inala. You make health for good possible.
How Cross-Subsidy Works
As a registered charity, every dollar we earn goes back into better healthcare for all Australians—whether that’s funding research, designing new services, or supporting our bulk-billing practice at Inala.
When you choose Yeerongpilly, you are directly supporting healthcare equity. Income from our private-billing practice helps sustain comprehensive services for communities facing the greatest health challenges. It’s cross-subsidy in action: quality care here, quality care everywhere.
Medicare funding for a complex community like Inala doesn’t cover the cost of comprehensive team-based care. The cross-subsidy from Yeerongpilly makes it possible. Your out-of-pocket costs here help fund longer appointments, care coordination, and integrated services there.
Innovation, Advocacy and System Change
We don't just deliver care—we reimagine it.
Our team and partners at Inala pioneered retinal screening in general practice and developed ‘beacon’ models bringing hospital specialists into community settings.
We’ve tested digital health platforms, from Australia’s first national health record upload to electronic prescribing pilots. We’re leading a Centre of Excellence for Healthy Aging to develop pathways for healthy ageing and have designed systems that give clinical teams better data for better decisions.
This work has earned recognition, including a 2024 Stronger Medicare Award for innovative care serving multicultural and marginalised communities. But awards aren’t the goal—better health outcomes are.
Advocating for System Change
Real impact requires changing systems, not just treating patients. Our national profile and role on policy committees means we advocate for the reforms healthcare needs. We speak up for team-based models, fair funding, and removing barriers to care.
When we develop something that works, we share it. Openly. With other practices, policymakers, and anyone working toward healthcare equity. Because innovations only create change when they spread beyond the practice that designed them.
Partners in Progress
We collaborate across sectors—with hospitals, universities, community organisations, and other general practices. Every partnership strengthens what we can offer communities. Every project adds another layer to our capacity.
That’s how a handful of doctors who refused to let Inala’s healthcare disappear has become a force for healthcare innovation across Australia. Most importantly, across our network of sites where we still care for patients and make a difference every day.
Teaching and Research
Training the Next Generation
We’re helping create the next generation of clinicians. Across our sites, we routinely host medical and nursing students, allied health trainees, and academic registrars. Their ability to become great clinicians depends on having safe opportunities to learn.
Teaching isn’t just about passing on knowledge. It’s about modelling the kind of care we believe in- team-based, patient-centred, evidence-informed, and compassionate. The choice to be involved is yours.
Contributing to Evidence
We run multiple quality improvement projects at any given time. We support external researchers. We ask our own research questions when they can improve patient care.
We’ve supported multiple Masters and Doctoral studies and their resulting publications. Our CEO and Clinical Director are research active. We value the data we create because it helps us understand what actually works.
Healthcare should be built on evidence, not habit. We’re committed to generating that evidence and sharing what we learn.
The evidence for great care is measured by impact not opinion. Sandstone stands on its reputation for using data and research to ensure everyone can access great care.
Health for good!
Donate To Support Our Mission
We’re a registered charity. All donations are tax-deductible.
Together, we’re proving that healthcare for all isn’t just possible—it’s essential.
Supporting Our Mission
Your support helps us:
- Sustain bulk-billing care at Inala
- Test new care models and spread what works
- Train the next generation of healthcare professionals
- Advocate for system-level change
- Fill gaps that Medicare doesn’t cover
