Primary care consultation
August 5, 2015
Hea lth minister Sussan
Ley yesterday released a new
discussion paper developed by
the Primary Health Care Advisory
Group (PHCAG) (PD 05 Jun), with
options for health system reform.
The discussion paper suggests
a range of possibilities such as
enrolling patients to a single
provider who would coordinate
multi-disciplinary care, setting
chronic disease payments for a
defined package of care rather
than remuneration for individual
services and adopting international
methods of best practice.
Ley said it was essential to review
chronic disease health care because
Medicare items covering these
areas had surged almost 17% in
2013-14 to over $587 million.
“We are committed to finding
better ways to care for people with
chronic and complex conditions and
ensure they receive the right care,
in the right place, at the right time,”
the minister said.
Guild president George Tambassis
said the Guild welcomed the public
consultation process.
With more than 5,450 community
pharmacies spread across the
country there was an “opportunity
to engage people along the health
spectrum and hard-to-reach
populations who do not use other
health services, particularly in rural
and remote locations,” he said.
“The time is right for better
and broader use of community
pharmacy as a primary health care
resource and as part of the wider
primary health care team”.
The PHCAG will now seek feedback
via an online survey to launch
tomorrow, as well as public sessions
in Sydney, Dubbo, Melbourne,
Geelong, Hobart, Perth, Brisbane,
Cairns, Rockhampton, Adelaide,
Alice Springs, Darwin and Broome.
A nationwide webcast will also
take place on Fri 21 Aug, and
after the consultation period
the PHCAG will develop specific
recommendations by the end of
the year - see health.gov.au.
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