Fed-state health ministers agree on reform

The Australian Health Ministers have agreed on the need for reciprocal public performance reporting, as well as priorities for immediate reform.

For the first time, this will mean the Commonwealth and State and Territory governments have agreed on building and reporting a comprehensive set of performance measures across the entire health system.

For example, this will include hospital performance reporting and measures of access to GPs by region.

The Ministers have also decided on a range of issues that should be included under a new Australian Health Care Agreement (AHCA).

Those areas will focus on taking pressure off hospitals by keeping people well and avoiding hospital admissions. The key elements of health reform to be dealt with by the AHCA are how to bring together the various aspects of the system to ensure coordination of services to deliver effective and efficient health care.

They have identified the areas for immediate focus by the Health Ministers beyond deciding on a new AHCA. These are:

· Improving the experience for people using health services
· Bringing the different aspects of the system together so that hospitals, ambulatory care, primary health care and care in the community have clear funding, role delineations, paths of engagement and transition and are able to continually improve their use both of the workforce and technology
· Building new models of care based on the patient experience that specifically
improve the speed of response to conditions arising from the ageing population, chronic disease and long-term conditions
· Focusing the system on prevention
· Expanding services and support for mothers and young children
· Better services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
· Building the health workforce needed for the future
· Developing the next generation of leaders to drive health system reform into the future