20 December 2016 — Submission

Submission to the Federal Treasurer for Federal Budget 2017-18

Consumers Health Forum

Consumer focused commitments for a 21st century consumer centred healthcare system

Adequate and equitable resourcing of our health system is essential to allow access to healthcare when and where consumers need it. Evidence-based and well-resourced health systems improve national productivity, are more cost-effective and equitable. Over time, moving to models of care which promote services being integrated will benefit consumers. Integrated care which puts the needs of people and communities, not diseases, at the centre of health systems and empowers consumers to take charge of their own health facilitates the adequate and equitable use of resources. This can be achieved through involving consumers in design as they can accelerate improvement and spur practical and local health and social care solutions. Examples of how this can be done already exist such as the work to produce the National Medicines Policy which recognises the fundamental role consumers have in reaching the objectives of quality care, better value for taxpayers and universal access to basic health services.

As the peak national body for consumer’s involvement in health CHF supports the development of an efficient, inclusive and accessible health system. We call on the Federal Government to take action in two key ways: to develop a national vision for our health system and to adequately resource it.

15 December 2016 — Submission

Accreditation Requirements and Processes for Emergency Medicine Training Providers

Consumers Health Forum

CHF believes that consumers and leaders of health service organisations should work together to create a health system that is responsive to patient, consumer and carer preferences and needs. Equally, consumers and clinicians should work together to plan, develop and evaluate services. Evidence is building about the links between effective partnerships, good consumer experience and high quality health care.

For example:

  • At the treatment level the existence of effective partnerships is associated with improved clinical outcomes, delivery of preventive care services and adherence to treatment regimens.
  • At the system level there is evidence that delivering health care that is based on partnerships can result in reduced hospital costs, lower cost per case and reduced length of stay.

With this evidence in mind, CHF provides the following comments about the proposed accreditation requirements and processes for emergency medicine specialist training providers.

12 December 2016 — Submission

Submission to the 5th National Mental Health Plan

CHF supports the development of patient centred, holistic care. An element of this is the dismantling of the silos that currently exist between mental and physical health. These silos are evident at the point of care delivery but also at the system and policy setting level. We are strong advocates of the need to take a whole-of-person approach to care planning, coordination and delivery of services and to better bridge mainstream health care and specialised mental health services.  This is particularly the case for primary and community based services pertaining to people with co-morbid mental and physical health problems.  
2 December 2016 — Submission

Redesign of the Practice Incentives Program

Consumers Health Forum

We welcome the opportunity to provide feedback regarding the redesign of the Practice Incentives Program. CHF supports the promotion of positive health behaviours and commends attempts to increase the rates of this occurring. Consequently, we support the proposed re-design of the PIP as we believe the current model has a number of structural shortcomings.

30 November 2016 — Submission

Revalidation of Medical Practitioners

Consumers Health Forum

CHF strongly supports in-principle the need for the introduction of revalidation of medical practitioners, and its fundamental purpose of ensuring public safety in healthcare. Australian consumers must be able to have complete faith in the safety and quality of healthcare services. This is a zero tolerance requirement for consumers, as unsafe care is obviously completely unacceptable.

28 November 2016 — Position Statements

Joint statement with the National Health and Medical Research Council

The National Health and Medical Research Council and the Consumers Health Forum of Australia have released a revised joint statement reflecting the growing recognition of the place of consumers and community in health research.

The Statement on Consumer and Community Involvement in Health and Medical Research revises the initial joint statement released by the two organisations in 2002. The CEO of the NHMRC, Professor Anne Kelso AO, and the CEO of CHF, Leanne Wells, say that in recent years the importance of consumer and community involvement in research has become more widely recognised.

24 November 2016 — Health Voices

Health Voices, Issue 19, November 2016

Consumers Health Forum

Big changes lie ahead for health care in Australia. Workforce roles are in flux while care gets more individually focused. This edition of Health Voicesexplores the question: Health consumers and workforce – are we engaged?

17 November 2016 — Presentations and Speeches

Treating Each Other With Respect: Philosophy, Goals, & Experience Wheels

Consumers Health Forum, presented by Dean Hewson

Presented at the Mayo Healthcare and Social Media Summit 2016 in Melbourne, this presentation is about how a solid bedrock of philosophy behind an organisation’s communications and a clear understanding of goals make treating each other with respect simple, and to show you how our philosophy & goals at CHF led to the creation of the Real People, Real Data toolkit, and it’s centrepiece, the Experience Wheel.

9 November 2016 — Report

The Patient Centred Health Workforce

Rebecca Randall

The health sector, both in Australia and internationally is increasingly being pushed to do more with less, provide for disparate populations and meet the increasingly complex needs of people who use our health systems.  While the practice of patient centered care has been shown to benefit the health system on a range of levels, from the individual patient to the health system at a macro level, the degree to which this has been implemented by health professions remains unclear.

In an attempt to change this CHF undertook a survey in August 2016 of 55 health workforce professional organizations. Three areas were investigated:

  • Attitudes toward and understanding of patients as partners in care
  • Policies, practices and procedures of the organizations regarding patients as partners in care
  • Organizations views of wider health system and workforce reforms
4 November 2016 — Submission

Submission to PC Inquiry into Human Services

Consumers Health Forum

INTRODUCING COMPETITION AND INFORMED USER CHOICE INTO HUMAN SERVICES: IDENTIFYING SECTORS FOR REFORM

Whilst CHF acknowledges that there is scope for improved efficiency in the delivery of health services we do not think that this preliminary findings report makes a convincing case for increasing competition and contestability delivering those efficiencies without detriment to consumers.  Some of the benefits identified for consumers could and should be achieved by reforms within the existing market arrangements. After these have been implemented it would then be useful to revisit all three areas and see if there is still scope for additional benefits from increased competition.

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