Analyzing The Health Policy In Australia And Public Health Initiatives

The History of Healthcare Initiatives in Australia

In case of Australia both the state and the federal are equally responsible to set an effective health policy. However, the policy is thorough and complex that creates much problem for the patients to navigate.  As far as life expectancy rate is concerned Australia enjoys sixth position in the world for high life expectancy ratio. Moreover, the government also invests around 8.8% of the GDP in better healthcare facility (Health.gov.au, 2018). Therefore, the purpose of this report is to evaluate the health policy in Australia and analyse the public health initiatives from a better perspective. Hence, the report incorporates the long history of the policy and its different avenues. Side by side the changes in the health care policies and its impacts on the Australian society are also taken into discussion for a more intense research.

As far as the health policy in Australia is concerned the government sets some policy statement or some brief narratives for the patients so that they can check out all the government initiatives in a short time. In this regard, the primary focus of the Australian government is to develop a better health condition as well as facility so that no one will be deprived (Pc.gov.au., 2018). In course of time there more complex the health policy becomes and it pushes the government to incorporate a number of strategies to deal with the escalating health related issues. For an example, the Australian government puts a deep thrust on the mental illness and obesity programs that are the main health related threat in present day Australia. In the fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan the government ought to include the regional integration to support the person-centred service system and build up a more effective healthcare plan (Health.gov.au, 2018). As a matter of fact, the Australian government also reviews its private health insurance plan in recent times in order to give the private healthcare institutions more leverage to attract more customers (Oecd.org., 2015). It will solidify the healthcare system both publicly and privately because the primary focus is on the benefits of the patients not on the profit maximisation.

Australia has witnessed a rich history of healthcare initiatives since the middle of Nineteenth century. At that time there was no centralised government department that took all the responsibilities related to health in the country. It was more like a fragmented form of healthcare system where every region or state had its own medical services. However, the primary focus was on infectious disease and sanitation. However, in due course in Department of Health was established in 1921 and it got a legal backbone to deal with the health related issues more profoundly (Mossialos et al., 2016).

Healthcare Policy Narratives in Australia

The Australian Federation was established in 1901 and it was considered to be the foundation of the unified healthcare policies in Australia (Baum & Fisher, 2014). A drastic change in the role among the Australian hospitals was seen and the government wanted to ensure medical assistance with nine public healthcare systems. It was in the period of 1930s that the government introduced medical specialisation where the medical practitioners begun to start their practice on the basis of the UK model (McGorry, Bates & Birchwood, 2016). As a result of that the policy of the Commonwealth government was also followed the UK medical policy where sanitation and local diseases got the major importance. During the time of the Second World War more advanced methods and policies were incorporated into the system in the light of aiding the allied forces and Australian forces better and quick treatment. As a result of that the idea of quality medical service was emerged. In the aftermath of the world war there was a huge migration in Australia and subsequently the number of hospitals and medical care facilities were installed in a rapid manner.

Since the late 1990s the private healthcare organisations were also taking interests in doing quality medical services to not only the white Australians but a great care was installed for the local aboriginals too. This was a cornerstone of equal medical care facility that coincided with both private and public intervention (Briggs et al., 2014). Surgery and chronic epidemics were considered to be the most important segments to follow. With the advent of the post-modern era the psychological treatments and policy making process was initiated by the Australian government due to a major change in the demography and social cohesion.

In this context, changes can be seen quiet effectively in course of setting up the healthcare policies by the Australian government. Introduction of technological advancement and private healthcare facilities the Australian government tries to make some amendments into the policy. For an example, reconsidering the private health insurance reforms are quiet relevant and effective enough to deal with the growing change of time (Hall, 2015). It will help to reduce the extra pressure on the public hospitals and incorporate the private bodies into the healthcare programs more effectively.

However, change in the Australian health policy was a new phenomenon but since entering into the new era of post modernity it becomes more and more complex for the government to resettle its policy again and again. More initiation towards the Australian aboriginals is quite a great step for the government through community engagement program and direct government intervention (Jowsey et al., 2014). Besides this, there is always an open threat of obesity and other health related issues mainly addiction to suicide among the Australian youths and psychological problem are seemed to the major challenges.

On the other hand, the Australian authority takes a great care of the evidence based clinical practices where the government is going to establish an expert panel of clinicians to evaluate and advise the government in this dire situation. It is also linked with the health policy of the government that puts emphasis on the cost effectiveness policy so that each and every Australian citizen could get better quality patient care with cost effective advantages (Health.gov.au, 2018).

There are a series of impact that can be seen in the Australian society due to effective initiatives taken by the government through adequate health policy making. The advantages are as follows,

• The public health initiatives help Australia to achieve one of the lowest smoking rates across the world. As per the report it can be stated that policies and programs related to not only the health but also tobacco packaging and advertisements are also played a significant role that made only 12.8% Australians to smoke daily (Oecd.org, 2015).
• Moreover, the government encouragement towards better use of specialisation made the country high rates of surgical interventions. It proves that the medical facilities are effective and efficient enough in order to provide quality treatment to the patients.
• Besides this, the government effort for the aged people and the child care policy are effective enough to prevent high mortality ratio. The Australian children and aged people have all the government assistance to deal with health related issues. Moreover, there are several private medical ownership that are also entitled to give quality patient care services.
• Inclusion of the aboriginals through the National Rural Health program is also a drastic step for the Australian government to incorporate the indigenous interests in the health policy. It proves a government purpose to enhance the quality of healthcare for all and irrespective of age barrier (Browne, Hayes & Gleeson, 2014).

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the Australian health policy is identified as one of the effective and legitimate policy that tries to include all the health related issues existed in Australia. From that point of view the Australian health policy is a national pride and excellent example to the world.

References

Baum, F., & Fisher, M. (2014). Why behavioural health promotion endures despite its failure to reduce health inequities. Sociology of health & illness, 36(2), 213-225.

Briggs, A. M., Towler, S. C., Speerin, R., & March, L. M. (2014). Models of care for musculoskeletal health in Australia: now more than ever to drive evidence into health policy and practice. Australian Health Review, 38(4), 401-405.

Browne, J., Hayes, R., & Gleeson, D. (2014). Aboriginal health policy: is nutrition the ‘gap’in ‘Closing the Gap’?. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 38(4), 362-369.

Hall, J. (2015). Australian health care—The challenge of reform in a fragmented system. New England Journal of Medicine, 373(6), 493-497.

Health.gov.au. (2018). Department of Health | Achieving integrated regional planning and service delivery. Retrieved from https://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-health-intergrated-reg-planning

Jowsey, T., Pearce?Brown, C., Douglas, K. A., & Yen, L. (2014). What motivates Australian health service users with chronic illness to engage in self?management behaviour?. Health Expectations, 17(2), 267-277.

McGorry, P., Bates, T., & Birchwood, M. (2013). Designing youth mental health services for the 21st century: examples from Australia, Ireland and the UK. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 202(s54), s30-s35.

Mossialos, E., Wenzl, M., Osborn, R., & Sarnak, D. (2016). 2015 international profiles of health care systems. Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health.

Oecd.org. (2015). Health policy in Australia. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/australia/Health-Policy-in-Australia-December-2015.pdf

Pc.gov.au. (2018). Improving Australia’s health system: what we can do now. Retrieved from https://www.pc.gov.au/news-media/pc-news/previous-editions/pc-news-may-2015/improving-australia-health-system