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The Rudd Government is committed to delivering better health outcomes for Australians through our health and hospital system.
The Government has already committed $3.3 billion over five years for National Health and Hospitals Reform which will systematically reform our public hospitals and the broader health system, help end the blame game between the Commonwealth and State and Territory governments, and deliver practical improvements to health services for individual Australians and the community.
The Government is working in partnership with the States and Territories to deliver this reform agenda. Key priorities for the Government include:
- reducing waiting times for elective surgery, especially for those patients who have waited longer then clinically recommended
- doubling the number of transition care places available for older Australians who no longer need to be in hospital but who require more time and support before returning home or to residential aged care;
- focussing on preventative health and health promotion, to help keep Australians healthy and out of hospital;
- improving the health of our kids;
- reducing waiting times for public dental treatment and assisting 1 million teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 with the cost of an annual preventative dental health check;
- increasing the number of Australians who obtain the life-saving benefits of an organ or tissue transplant; and
- improving indigenous wellbeing by ensuring that health and ageing programs and initiatives address the needs of indigenous Australians living in urban, regional and remote areas of the country.
- Improving our hospitals
- Care for older Australians
- Preventative health
- Dental care
- Primary Health Care Strategy
- Organ and tissue donation
Improving our hospitals
The Government has started work on implementing reform to improve health outcomes for patients in Australia’s health and hospital system.
The Government is investing an extra $1 billion for 2008-09 to relieve the pressure on public hospitals. This decision reverses the national trend of Commonwealth cutbacks to hospital funding under the previous government.
An upfront investment of $150 million has also been provided to the States and Territories for an immediate blitz on elective surgery waiting lists, as part of a $600 million package to dramatically increase the number of elective surgery procedures completed within the clinically recommended time. This will lead to around 25,000 additional elective surgery procedures in 2008 alone.
While immediate action is important, Australia also needs to consider the long term future of the health system. The Government has established the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission, chaired by Dr Christine Bennett, who has extensive experience in the health sector. The NHHRC will develop a long-term reform plan for the health system, in consultation with health experts, professionals and consumers, by the middle of 2009.
Care for older Australians
The Rudd Government is committed to improving the support that is available for older Australians, particularly those who need residential aged care.
The Government is increasing the number of operational aged care beds, and improving the transition between home, hospital and aged care services, by:
- providing $300 million in zero real interest loans to aged care providers to help them build or expand facilities in areas of need. Approximately 115 applications have been received to date; and
- fully funding an additional 2,000 transition care places, to be rolled out over four years.
The Rudd Government is committed to the long-term viability of Australia’s aged care sector. As a sign of that commitment the 2008-09 Budget provided an extra $407.6 million over four years for residential aged care through the continuation and increase of the Conditional Adjustment Payment (CAP), a supplement to the basic aged care subsidy. Over the next four years, total funding for aged and community care will reach record levels of more than $40 billion – with $28.6 billion of that on residential aged care alone.
The Rudd Government will carry its commitment to improving support for older Australians into this year’s negotiations for the National Healthcare Agreement, by prioritising measures to reduce the number of people waiting in hospital for a residential aged care place, and committing the States and Territories to concrete health outcomes for the benefit of the older members of our community.
For further information, visit the Ageing section of the Department of Health and Ageing website.Top
Preventative health
The Rudd Government believes that keeping people well and preventing disease is every bit as important as managing and caring for those who are sick. The Government is making preventative health and health promotion a major focus of our health system by:
- establishing a National Preventative Health Taskforce which will develop strategies to tackle the health challenges caused by tobacco, alcohol and obesity, and develop a National Preventative Health Strategy by June 2009;
- the new National Healthcare Agreement will include a Preventative Health Partnership between the Commonwealth and the states and territories;
- obesity is now a national health priority and the government will work with the States and Territories to tackle Australia’s obesity epidemic; and
- improving the health of our children by bringing in a Healthy Kids Check to test the health and wellbeing of all our kids in the first year of school, and creating a Healthy Habits for Life guide for parents, to help their children develop healthy habits and tackle childhood obesity.
For further information, visit the Department of Health and Ageing website and the National Preventative Health Taskforce website.
TopDental care
The Rudd Government recognises the importance of having healthy teeth to a person’s overall health. The Government is taking a two-pronged approach to ensure more Australians can access dental treatment.
Firstly, a new Commonwealth Dental Health Program will provide $290 million over three years to States and Territory governments so that they can deliver up to one million additional public dental consultations and treatments and help clear the backlog of people waiting for public dental care. In return, States and Territories will give priority access to those with dental-related chronic disease, Indigenous Australians and preschool-aged children.
Secondly, the Government’s Teen Dental Plan will help keep our kids’ teeth in good health. The plan will provide $150 towards an annual preventative check for teenagers aged 12 to 17 in families receiving Family Tax Benefit (FTB) A or who are eligible for Youth Allowance or Abstudy. Over one million teenagers will be eligible for assistance under the program.
For further information, visit the Dental Health section of Department of Health and Ageing website.
TopPrimary Health Care Strategy
Australia needs a health care system that keeps people well, not just one that looks after them when they are sick. The Rudd Government will develop a National Primary Health Care Strategy to better tackle the health challenges of the 21st century, and make sure that families can get the health care they need.
The Strategy will look at how to deliver better frontline care to families across Australia, with priorities including:
- Better rewarding prevention.
- Promoting evidence-based management of chronic disease.
- Supporting patients with chronic disease to manage their condition.
- Supporting the role GPs play in the health care team.
- Addressing the growing need for access to other health professionals, including practice nurses and allied health professionals like physiotherapists and dieticians.
- Encouraging a greater focus on multidisciplinary team-based care.
For further information, visit the Department of Health and Ageing website.
TopOrgan and tissue donation
The Government is committed to giving the approximately 1,800 Australians who are waiting for a solid organ transplant at any one time the best possible chance of obtaining these life-saving benefits.
In a concrete example of the Rudd Government’s focus on practical improvements to the health system, COAG endorsed a $136.4 million organ and tissue donation reform package to improve Australia’s flagging donation rate on 3 July 2008. This package will aim to establish from 1 January 2009, a world-class comprehensive national system of organ and tissue donation, led by the Commonwealth and delivered in partnership with the States.
This package draws upon international models of best practice in clinical systems to maximise the number of organ and tissue donors, for promoting community awareness and for supporting donor families.
The National Plan to Boost Organ Donation will fund a network of specialist doctors and clinical nurse educators in public and private hospitals around Australia to focus solely on organ and tissue donation. It will provide funds to hospitals for the additional staffing, bed and infrastructure costs associated with the donation process. This national effort will be spearheaded by an independent national authority for organ donation and transplantation. The new authority will report to COAG, within its first year of operation, on an implementation plan for each element of the reform package and it will report progress against concrete outcome measures.
For further information, visit the Organ and Tissue Donation section of the Department of Health and Ageing website.