Why primary health care reform should top the COAG agenda

  • Hal Swerissen

19 February 2010And it might even help 'fix' hospitals, writes Hal Swerissen in Croakey

HEALTH REFORM is a critical issue for Australia. The population is ageing and the number of people with serious chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes will increase. Concerns about the impact of lifestyle, particularly obesity, on health are growing.  As a result, demand for health services will grow dramatically over the next 25 years.

Unfortunately so far there has been too much emphasis on trying to ‘fix hospitals’, and not enough attention on the ‘front end’ of health: prevention and primary health care.  In 2007-08, approximately 730,000 hospital admissions could have been avoided by better primary health care and prevention...

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