ALP health policy scores more than Coalition & Greens

Australia’s professional nursing organisation, the Royal College of Nursing Australia (RCNA), has released its scorecard on the health platforms of the main political parties, announcing that the Australian Labor Part (ALP) was clearly the best, although no party met nurses’ expectations for reform.

RCNA has scored the Australian Labor Party 11, the Coalition 4 and the Greens Party 3 out of a possible 50 points.

Acting chief executive officer, Kathleen McLaughlin, said this year, RCNA identified key election priorities following extensive discussion and consultation with its members. It then scored the health policy platforms of the three major parties against these priorities.

“RCNA looked for the degree to which the health policy statements of the political parties reflected RCNA’s reform principles, specifically:

• Do they recognise the need for system-wide health care reform and if so, do they stress the critical role nurses must play in that reform?
• Do they reflect a patient-centred, health promotion and prevention approach to health care and acknowledge the central role of nursing in this approach?
• Do they plan to make better use of the skills of all health professionals?
• Is there a clear vision for maximising the expertise of the nursing profession, which, as the predominant health profession across the health sector, is currently significantly underutilised?
• Do they commit to injecting much needed funds into enhancing and expanding the community and primary health care roles of nurses that sit outside of general practice? 

“The ALP’s score reflects its vision and work to date. The Coalition picked up points for potential investments in the professional development needs of all nurses.

“The Greens scored for commitments to preventive care and health promotion, promoting multidisciplinary teams, taking a whole of systems view of health care and committing to review and implement measures to attract health professionals to rural and remote areas.”

“RCNA calls on all political parties to acknowledge this in their health policies and proposed plans initiatives.”

RCNA’s full scorecard and policy document, Key Election Priorities 2010, can be found at the RCNA’s website http://www.rcna.org.au