• COAG Reform Council

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04 June 2010This report is an assessment of the performance of the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments against the National Healthcare Agreement’s seven objectives—prevention, primary and community care, hospital care, aged care, patient experience, social inclusion and Indigenous health, and health system sustainability.

While the Australian healthcare system is generally strong, this report highlights the significant scope for improvement, especially for Indigenous Australians, those from socio-economically disadvantaged areas, and those who live in rural and remote Australia. For Indigenous Australians this is perhaps best illustrated by life expectancy—while the majority of Australians have one of the longest life expectancies on earth, Indigenous Australians can expect to live around 11 years less if they are male, and almost 10 years less if female.

Similarly, the range of poor health and service outcomes for people from the most socio-economically disadvantaged and the most remote areas includes substantially lower rates of five-year survival from cancer, longer waiting times for elective surgery and fewer available general practitioners in their areas.

This report also highlights the important gaps in knowledge about how effectively parts of the system perform. In particular, the council is concerned about the emphasis in the National Healthcare Agreement on reporting on service outputs, rather than on health outcomes for people. For example, there is an absence of data or measures that would allow reporting on quality and safety in primary care, aged care and hospitals.

• Executive Summary - National Healthcare Agreement: Executive SummaryDOC 472KB | National Healthcare Agreement: Executive SummaryPDF 150KB
• Full Report (Volume 1) - National Healthcare Agreement: Full ReportDOC 4.7MB | National Healthcare Agreement: Full ReportPDF 3.1MB
• Volume 2, Section 1 - National Healthcare Agreement: Volume 2, Section 1PDF 288KB
• Volume 2, Section 2 - National Healthcare Agreement: Volume 2, Section 2PDF 4.7MB
• Volume 2, Section 3 - National Healthcare Agreement: Volume 2, Section 3PDF 188KB