Integrated primary health care in Australia

• Published in: International journal of integrated care Vol. 9; no. 4; p. e95
• Main Authors: Davies, Gawaine Powell, Perkins, David, McDonald, Julie, Williams, Anna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Ubiquity Press 14.10.2009; Igitur, Utrecht Publishing & Archiving
• Series: Special series: Integrated primary health care
• Subjects: Australia; Chronic illnesses; Collaboration; Community health care; Community nursing; Emergency medical care; Government; Health care policy; Health insurance; health policy; Health services; Hospitals; Insurance industry; integration; Medical personnel; Medical records; Medicare; Policy; Primary care; primary health care; Public health; United Kingdom > UK; Australia; integration; primary health care; health policy; Australia
• ISSN: 1568-4156; 1568-4156
• DOI: 10.5334/ijic.328

To fulfil its role of coordinating health care, primary health care needs to be well integrated, internally and with other health and related services. In Australia, primary health care services are divided between public and private sectors, are responsible to different levels of government and work under a variety of funding arrangements, with no overarching policy to provide a common frame of reference for their activities. Over the past decade, coordination of service provision has been improved by changes to the funding of private medical and allied health services for chronic conditions, by the development in some states of voluntary networks of services and by local initiatives, although these have had little impact on coordination of planning. Integrated primary health care centres are being established nationally and in some states, but these are too recent for their impact to be assessed. Reforms being considered by the federal government include bringing primary health care under one level of government with a national primary health care policy, establishing regional organisations to coordinate health planning, trialling voluntary registration of patients with general practices and reforming funding systems. If adopted, these could greatly improve integration within primary health care. Careful change management and realistic expectations will be needed. Also other challenges remain, in particular the need for developing a more population and community oriented primary health care.