05 March 2010 Future of Australia’s health in GPs’ hands
Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has this week presented the Government’s National Health and Hospital Network for Australia’s Future report, which he described as ‘the most significant reforms to health and hospitals since the introduction of Medicare’.
The proposed National Health and Hospital Network will be funded nationally and run locally with input from local health clinicians. We welcome the proposal for more local involvement and decision making and we hope that GPs will be able to play a significant role in these local networks.
While we understand that the Prime Minister’s announcement was primarily a presentation on the hospital system, we believe that this was a missed opportunity to talk directly about investment in general practice, primary health care and prevention.
General practice has not had the necessary investment in services or infrastructure for decades, so it’s hardly surprising so many patients are ending up in hospital. If we want to turn this around, the money will have to follow patients into general practice. General practice and the community health sector must become a funding priority. In the May budget, we need to see real investment into general practice, including funding for general practice infrastructure, funding for general practice training and funding to reward high quality general practice care. The college’s 2010–2011 Federal Budget submission is available at www.racgp.org.au/healthreform.
As such, we hope that future Government reports in relation to primary health care, prevention and sub-acute care will better support GPs’ key role in the communities.
In addition, the role of the National Health and Hospital Network outlined on page 65 in the National Health and Hospital Network for Australia’s future report is very broad and we will need more details on its implementation. The National Health and Hospital Network for Australia’s future report is available at www.yourhealth.gov.au.
We urge all our members to familiarise themselves with these proposed changes and to take an active role in promoting the central role general practice plays in the health reform process.
The college is committed to working with all levels of government to improve access to high quality care to better meet the needs of our communities.
M5 Project - RACGP men's health initiative helping men to help themselves
M5 encourages men and those who care about them to recognise the importance of men forming an ongoing relationship with a GP.
