Professional News 2008

April 2008

Reform important but long term plan needed

Health reform is currently the hot topic in health policy circles with the establishment of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NRHHC) and the possibilities it brings to improving our health care system. The first task of the Commission will be reforming hospital funding, with a report being prepared on improving the Australian Health Care Agreements, the bilateral funding agreements between the federal, state and territory governments for the provision and funding of public hospital services. This is an important task as there have been many calls for improving the transparency and accountability of these agreements. Nurses struggling to deliver services in our public hospitals understand how hard it is to get resources to adequately care for patients. To this end ensuring money is spent where it is most needed is vital.

There is also increasing recognition that reforming these agreements to extend beyond hospital care would be an important step in improving the coordination and integration of health care services.

The Australian Health Care Agreements, as a mechanism for the pooling of funds by both the federal, and state and territory governments, may provide a framework for the delivery of better integrated services by also funding care outside of hospitals.

The report from the Commission on the Australian Health Care Agreements is due in April and this is when the real work of the Commission will begin.

The Commission must develop a plan for the long term reform of our entire health sector, and should provide a blueprint for a new approach to the funding and delivery of health services in Australia. The inflationary pressures in health care are great; our workforce is depleted and demoralised; access to health care is increasingly difficult for lower socioeconomic groups and those living outside metropolitan areas and Indigenous health outcomes are shameful. Unless these issues are addressed, preventable diseases threaten to see the next generation of Australians with a shorter life expectancy than their parents.

How the Commission goes about this work will be very important. Consulting with the broadest possible group of stakeholders, including nurses and consumers, in developing a reform plan will be essential. What proposals for reform they will develop is not yet known, but we do know that meeting the health care needs of this country into the future will require some bold ideas.

Fiona Armstrong
ANF Senior Federal Professional Officer

Fiona Armstrong is also the recently elected chair of the Australian Health Care Reform Alliance.