Consumers Shaping Health

Welcome back to another year. Already much has been happening, with much more on the agenda for the year. We have a new Health Minister in Greg Hunt. In a welcome move, he reached out to CHF very early in his tenure to touch base. Tony Lawson and I had a lengthy face-to-face meeting with Minister Hunt about his vision for a national health plan and preventative health. We advocated that these undertakings need to be informed by consumer and community aspirations and expectations of our health system. The Minister agreed to work with us on a Consumer Roundtable to provide the opportunity to bring together key consumer groups and advocates to ensure that the national health plan is shaped from a consumer and community perspective.

This is a re-launch of the Consumers Shaping Health e-newsletter we have been sending to stakeholders for some years. Now more people than ever will be receiving it as part of our aim to reach out to as many interested people as we can. The health consumer’s role is more important than ever with both clinicians and governments realising that healthcare works best when consumers have a central say about how it is designed and delivered. Many issues like Health Care Homes, health insurance, pharmacy, health literacy and quality and safety are crucial to consumers. Consumers Shaping Health will bring to you every two months news on what CHF and others are doing to ensure the consumers have impact in national health policy.