A Healthier Future For All Australians Final Report JUNE 2009
The National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission has delivered its final report A Healthier Future for all Australians.
The Commission says that our health system has many strengths and our health outcomes are among the best in the world. But it is under growing pressure – especially as the health needs of our population change.
The Commission has found that we have a fragmented health system with a complex division of funding responsibilities and performance accountabilities.
The report identifies actions that can be taken against three reform goals:
1. Tackling major access and equity issues that affect health outcomes for people now;
2. Redesigning our health system so that it is better positioned to respond to emerging challenges; and
3. Creating an agile and self-improving health system for long-term sustainability.
There are 123 recommendations in this report and we read with interest its comments re workforce planning:
“The planning of our future health workforce requirements is a bit like Swiss cheese (riddled with gaps and incomplete and poorly coordinated information).”
Its recommendations include:
“We recommend a new education framework for the education and training of health professionals:
• moving towards a flexible, multi-disciplinary approach to the education and training of all health professionals;
• incorporating an agreed competency-based framework as part of broad teaching and learning curricula for all health professionals;
• establishing a dedicated funding stream for clinical placements for undergraduate and postgraduate students; and
• ensuring clinical training infrastructure across all settings (public and private, hospitals, primary health care and other community settings).
For further information: http://www.yourhealth.gov.au/internet/yourhealth/publishing.nsf/Content/NHHRC