Principles and people should guide our health system

Further to a value-based system there is also an urgent need to establish a permanent National Health Reform Commission or Council to implement reforms.

The current National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission is only temporary. It is vital that once this Commission has disbanded - having made what we hope to be strong recommendations for fundamental reforms - we will need a permanent institution established to ensure reforms are implemented in coherent way.

Medicare didn’t roll out without the oversight of a health commission in the 1970s, and the comprehensive reform needed to the health system will also require the same level of considered oversight.

The permanent Commission should pull together the various reform measures being considered currently, including those focusing on improving preventive health (the National Preventative Health Taskforce); strengthening primary health care (National Primary Health Care Strategy); addressing the inadequacies of national workforce planning (National Health Workforce Taskforce); the collection the development of consistent national standards for e-health (National E-Health Transition Authority); addressing Indigenous health inequalities (Health Equality Commission); safety and quality (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care); and national health reform (National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission).

It is hard to imagine how, without a body to oversee implementation, all of these disparate policy measures will fit together and form a comprehensive and consistent national plan for health.

AHCRA urges the Australian Government to establish a permanent Health Commission to co-ordinate the development, implementation and evaluation of national health policy, informed by an ongoing conversation with Australians to ensure all policies reflect the underlying values and views of the community.