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.

27 October 2016 Presentations and Speeches

Balancing innovation and evidence in self-management and self care - a consumer perspective

Consumers Health Forum, presented by Leanne Wells

Leanne Wells spoke at the 2016 Australian Self Medication Industry Conference on the topic of "Balancing innovation and evidence in self-management and self-care - a consumer perspective".

24 October 2016 Submission

Submission to the RACGP 5th Edition Standards Patient Guide

CHF welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback of the draft 5th edition Standards for General Practice Patient Feedback guide. We are pleased with the current state of the patient feedback guide and feel that the majority of the work in it respects consumers and will help practices best serve them. The suggestions provided in this submission will help practices communicate clearly and ethically to consumers about the need to collect data and the practices by which it is done.

18 October 2016 Consumers Shaping Health

Consumers Shaping Health, vol 10, issue 1, October 2016

I would like to introduce you to our new look Consumers Shaping Health. The Consumers Health Forum of Australia (CHF) is the nation’s peak body representing healthcare consumers and those with an interest in healthcare consumer affairs.

We live in an era of rapid change in healthcare and human services. Current developments such as digital health technology, community-based healthcare and the rise in consumer-directed care all point towards the growing influence of the consumer. Consumers Shaping Health aims to give you a quick overview of what CHF and our key partners do to shape health policy and programmes.

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.

14 October 2016 Fact Sheets

Progress towards a Healthcare Consumer Organisation for Tasmania

Consumers Health Forum

In September 2015, the Consumers Health Forum of Australia (CHF) was engaged by Primary Health Tasmania to undertake foundational work to scope the need for, and to support the potential establishment of, a healthcare consumer organisation (HCO) in Tasmania. Currently Tasmania is the only Australian state without a HCO.

6 October 2016 Submission

Submission to MBS Review Taskforce: First Report of the MBS Principles and Rules Committee

Consumers Health Forum

CHF is providing this submission in response to the First Report of the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) Principles and Rules Committee, and to add to our responses provided via the online survey about the First Report.

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