A Bold Pitch For Health Reform, Australia Nursing Federation

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 10 Jun 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) has made a bold pitch in its submission to the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission, calling for major reform to the way health services are funded and delivered.

Nurses want to see major reform to Medicare with a move away from fee for service to funding systems that reward all health professionals equitably. Creating a patient centered system, where funds follow the patient, not the provider, is critical for true health reform.

The ANF is calling for primary health care services to shift from fee for service 'six minute medicine' models to one where salaried health professionals work in multidisciplinary teams to provide comprehensive care, focussing on health promotion and illness prevention.

Reform must put nursing at the centre of the health system in order to create a sustainable model of care, ANF federal secretary Ged Kearney said. "It is time for governments to acknowledge that nursing is the major health care workforce, and organise the health sector accordingly," Ms Kearney said.

"Nurses are currently under-utilised and under-valued due to outdated structures of funding, archaic professional boundaries and excessive workloads." Ms Kearney said. "These issues must be addressed to give the community access to the full potential of nursing care; health care that is demonstrated to be safe, efficient and effective.

The ANF is calling for a cost benefit analysis of nursing care to be conducted across all sectors. "No other health profession brings the same capacity for health care delivery. Gaining a true understanding of the economic status of nursing care would eliminate the persistent misunderstanding among health care administrators and governments that nursing care constitutes a cost burden," Ms Kearney said.

The ANF supports a stronger focus on primary health care, to improve the care of people with chronic illnesses, preventing unnecessary hospitalisations and alleviating the pressure on public hospitals. This is particularly important when considering primary health care for older Australians.

"Older people often have complex health problems that require specialist nursing care and we need to ensure qualified nursing staff remain in aged care. It is difficult for GPs to deliver primary health care to aged care facilities, but there are great models of nurse practitioner led care in the sector that need to be considered," Ms Kearney said.

Nurses working in aged care earn on average $20,000 less per annum than nurses working in other sectors making it difficult for the aged care sector to attract suitably qualified staff. "Unless these issues are addressed, we will see an ever increasing risk to the safety and quality of care for frail and vulnerable older people with more unnecessary and preventable hospital admissions."

ANF Submission to the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission | Attachment A | Attachment B

The ANF, representing nearly 160,000 members, is the professional and industrial voice for nurses and midwives in Australia.

Australian Nursing Federation

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