The Federal Government has published its plan for national health reform implementation, which will deal with improving public hospitals, increasing transparency and lessening waste.

 

The National Health Reform Progress and Delivery plan will administer the following reforms:

  • improve patient access to services and public hospital efficiency through the use of Activity Based Funding (ABF) based on a national efficient price,
  • ensure the sustainability of funding for public hospitals by increasing the Commonwealth Government’s share of public hospital funding through an increased contribution to the costs of growth,
  • improve the transparency of public hospital funding through a National Health Funding Pool,
  • improve standards of clinical care, performance reporting and accountability across the health and aged care system,
  • improve local accountability and responsiveness to the needs of communities,
  • improve the provision of GP and primary health care services, and
  • improve aged care and disability services.

 

The document also states the following outlines for future health

  • governments agree that an effective health system that meets the health needs of the community requires coordination between hospital, GP and primary health care and aged care to minimise service duplication and fragmentation,
  • Australians should be able to access transparent and nationally comparable performance data and information on hospitals, primary health care, aged care services and other health services,
  • governments should continue to support diversity and innovation in the health system as a crucial mechanism to achieve better outcomes,
  • all Australians should have equitable access to high quality health care, including those living in regional and remote areas, and
  • governments agree that Australia’s health system should promote social inclusion and reduce disadvantage, especially for Indigenous Australians.

 

A full copy of the plan can be found here