This Evidence Brief from the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association’s (AHHA) Deeble Institute for Health Policy Research and Consumers Health Forum of Australia (CHF) provides recommendations for health service providers including hospitals and Primary Health Networks (PHNs) to increase the role of consumers in designing healthcare services. The brief was authored by Rebecca Randall (CHF)...

Since 1998, data about general practice activity in Australia has been collected, analysed and disseminated through the Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH) program. BEACH has provided valuable information about how general practice has changed over time, the impact of policy on practice and general practitioner (GP) professional development, and is the most...

More effective action is urgently required in order to reduce the unacceptable health inequalities experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Food insecurity and nutrition-related chronic conditions are responsible for a large proportion of the ill-health experienced by Australia’s First Peoples who, before colonisation, enjoyed physical, social and cultural wellbeing for tens of thousands...

What is the problem? Australia has seen increasing demand on hospital Emergency Departments (ED) with a 65% rise in presentations between 2001 and 2011 (McCarthy 2013) resulting in increased waiting times, prolonged stays, overcrowding and delayed admission (Geelhoed and de Klerk 2012). Prolonged ED stays can adversely impact patient outcomes (Maumill et al. 2013; Sullivan...

The Australian Government Department of Health’s 2014 Review of After-hours Primary Health Care (Australian Government Department of Health 2014a) found that after-hours primary health care delivery in Australia is functioning suboptimally. The transition of Medicare Locals (MLs) to Primary Health Networks (PHNs) provides a timely opportunity to re-evaluate and re-orientate after-hours primary care services. All...