Health reform – 2007 to the present
A brief history of health reform between 2007 and the end of 2009 is here.
The health reform agenda came to a head at a special meeting of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) held in Canberra on 19-20 April 2010. The communiqué from that meeting can be found here.
The outcome was described by the Prime Minister as “the biggest reforms to the health system since the introduction of Medicare.”
Key elements of the agreement are as follows:
From 1 July 2010 the new National Health and Hospitals Network will start delivering:
- 1,300 extra hospital beds;
- an agreement to reshape mental health services and help 20,000 extra young people get access to services;
- 5,500 new GPs or GPs undergoing training over the next decade;
- 680 more specialist doctors over the next decade;
- more support for nurses and allied health professionals;
- an additional 2,500 aged care beds;
- emergency department waiting times capped at four hours;
- elective surgery delivered on time for 95 per cent of Australians;
- up to 1,300 additional sub-acute beds by 2013-14;
- a national after-hours service to provide telephone support;
- Commonwealth funding and policy responsibility for primary care; and
- Commonwealth funding and policy responsibility for aged care.
Western Australia did not sign up to the agreement.
The National Health and Hospitals Network will be funded nationally and
run locally.
Of particular interest for people in rural and remote areas, there will be extra sub-acute beds or bed-equivalents in Multi-Purpose Services. Eligibility for those services will also be expanded, creating an additional 300 beds.
The Commonwealth’s leadership of primary care is to be based on newly- established primary health care organisations to be known as Medicare Locals. The new arrangements for public hospitals will be overseen by Local Hospital Networks.
Much of the detail of these arrangements is yet to be confirmed, as well as those that will apply to the Commonwealth’s increased responsibility for aged care.
Some further details about these announcements, and decisions made in the 2010 Federal Budget, can be accessed on this website through the budget page.
The NRHA is following these developments closely, with a view to seeing how they will impact on people in rural and remote areas. There have been NRHA media releases on some of the initiatives, and these releases are available on this website.
Before the series of announcements began, the Alliance produced a series of Health Reform Notes on some of the critical issues. Some of the contents of these have now been overtaken by decisions made (and not made) at COAG but they are still likely to be of interest to people concerned with these and related matters. |
