Welcoming the Australian Government’s new Measuring What Matters: Australia’s First Wellbeing Framework, Chief Executive of the National Rural Health Alliance (the Alliance), Susi Tegen, said the Alliance looks forward to the next iteration.
A report by Croakey Health Media on 27 July 2023 quotes Ms Tegen as saying that the Alliance supports the addition of a National Rural Health Strategy under one of the 50 indicators in the Wellbeing Framework.
‘There currently isn’t a strategy and, without it, we are not able to measure improvement against the recent findings that rural, remote and regional Australia currently has a $6.55 billion underspend per annum in health care,’ Ms Tegen told Croakey Health Media.
‘A strategy will allow Australia to measure rural Australia’s progress towards health status, access and equity, and also redistribute the underspend to these regions,’ she said.
Ms Tegen noted that it is early days in the Government’s attempt to outline a framework to improve wellbeing outcomes.