The Consumers Health Forum in this 2018-19 Budget submission urges the Government to ensure the health system is consumer centred: providing care which is accessible, affordable and for whole-of-person needs.
We acknowledge the commitment from the Government to developing and delivering on...Read more
About Policy Submissions
We regularly make submissions to national level inquiries. If you are after a submission from earlier than listed here, please contact us.
CHF welcomed the Review of Medicines and Medical Device Regulation. Consumers constantly raise with us their concerns about safety and quality of medicines and medical devices often giving us examples of when the system has failed. We have heard some terrible stories. For many people, this is...Read more
CHF’s submission to the draft report of the Review of Accreditation Systems within the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme has called for greater interprofessional collaboration, training in settings other than hospitals and the need to improve efficiency, consistency and commonality...Read more
First and foremost, we would like to remind the government and policy makers that consumers, the people who use the health system and for whom it was created, should be at the centre of all of decisions. As advocates for consumers, who do not have a financial stake in this, we offer suggestions...Read more
This is a response to the discussion paper released 18 August 2017.
CHF agrees with the Discussion Paper that there is a balance to be struck between security protections surrounding health professionals’ access to patients’ Medicare card numbers to avoid unauthorised, inappropriate or fraudulent use, and timely access to Medicare benefits for patients who are unable to present their Medicare card at the time of service. Read more
The Taskforce’s report acknowledges that after-hours GP services are essential services and highly valued by consumers. While there has been an increase in the number of urgent after-hours services provided under the MBS, CHF notes that this increase on its own does not mean that these services were unjustified. Other factors, such as better access to and availability of after-hours services, could explain the increase. Moreover, an increase is not of itself surprising given the Government’s policy initiatives in recent decades to increase access to better organised after-hours services. Without these services many people, including parents and young families, the elderly including residents in aged care facilities, carers and people with terminal or chronic conditions, have faced great difficulty in getting the care they need.Read more
The Interim Report correctly identifies the challenges of the current approach and makes a strong case for the need to change. This is not to say that the current system fails consumers or that it is a system in disarray, Indeed we know from the many surveys done by the Pharmacy Guild and others...Read more
It is becoming increasingly clear that there has been a major failure of the health system with regard to the use of transvaginal mesh to treat women. Many women have been left with permanent injuries and disabilities as a result of this device being implanted.
We welcome this Senate...Read more
CHF is pleased to provide the following comments on the four initial resources released by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) to support the National Safety and Quality in Health Service Standards (second edition). We have focused on whether the resources...Read more
CHF has consistently called for improved information provision to consumers as way of ensuring they understand their private health insurance policies and can make informed decisions. We regard the ACCC’s continued interest in this issue and the fact that the last two reports have been focused...Read more