The National Rural Health Alliance (the Alliance) submitted a response to the Productivity Commission’s draft recommendations in the interim report on the inquiry into Delivering Quality Care More Efficiently.
Draft recommendation 1.1: The Australian Government should pursue greater alignment in quality and safety regulation of the care economy to improve efficiency and outcomes for care users
The Alliance supports re-alignment of quality and safety regulation across health, disability and aged care. In rural Australia, this re-alignment must leverage the full capacity of the health workforce to deliver safe, high-quality services, and crucial support for those already on the ground, while ensuring public safety standards are maintained.
Draft recommendation 2.1: Governments should embed collaborative commissioning, with an initial focus on reducing fragmentation in health care to foster innovation, improve care outcomes and generate savings
The Alliance supports this recommendation and urges governments to agree to governance and funding arrangements in the next addendum to the National Health Reform Agreement, specifically to allow better collaboration between Local Hospital Networks, Primary Health Networks and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations.
Draft recommendation 3.1: Establish a National Prevention Investment Framework to support investment in prevention, improving outcomes and slowing the escalating growth in government care expenditure
A National Prevention Investment Framework would potentially give structure, accountability, and long-term focus to prevention in health policy, provided it incorporates dedicated investment that allows scaling up of evidence-based programs. The framework would need to be underpinned by national datasets broken down by priority populations, socioeconomic considerations and appropriate rurality weightings in funding formulae.