HLTH 5196 Responsible Leadership In Health
Question:
Response to question
Answer:
Motion of the argument:
National health reforms is heavily influenced by political/reactive decision making rather than by a more strategic approach to decision making
According to Australian Government – Department of Health (2011), the government of Australia has invested as additional amount of $7.8 billion during the tenure of 2010 to 2014 in order to bring fundamental reform in the healthcare system of Australia. These far reaching national reforms were proposed with an aim to ensure affordable and accessible healthcare for the Australian population and in order to cope up with the escalating demands in healthcare in Australia. Thus, it can be said that this health-reform to ensuring the equitable access to healthcare is framed certain strategic approach. This strategic approach is based on the fact that despite the overall improvement in the Australian healthcare system during the first half of the twenty-first century, the overall healthcare structure of Australia was still highlight with significant amount of health inequalities (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2006). These health inequalities are mostly prevalent among the Australian aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islanders, which have increased morbidity and mortality rate among the aboriginals. Thus making gamut investment in the health care system will ensure decrease in the overall healthcare cost along with the increase in the overall access to care followed by increase in the recruitment in the culturally competent nurse. All these initiatives will eventually promote quality health and well-being among the Australian aboriginals (Taylor et al., 2014). However, through the health care reform in eradicating health inequality in Australia was done with a long-term approach, there are certain gaps in strategic planning. ABC News (2016) highlighted that if the policy makers want to decrease the overall health inequalities in Australia, the government is required to create better thriving environment where all the social determinants of heath are adequately addressed. However, the aboriginals in Australia still suffer from the poor social determinant of health as per the reports published by Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2016). Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2016) stated that 31% of the disease burden in Australia might have been reduced via preventing the modifiable risk factors. Thus, gamut investment for the promotion of cost-effective healthcare is failing to fetch effective results. Though the need for cost effective healthcare is important from the perspective of the Australian healthcare system, political agenda behind it cannot be ignored completely. Making investments in favour of cost-effective healthcare system in help the ruling government to fetch votes from the rural or the deprived group of population.
Australian Government – Department of Health (2011) further highlighted that the healthcare reforms are designed with an agenda to significantly modernize or improve the Australia’s healthcare system under the aid of financial arrangements. Apart from the financial reform, structural reforms are proposed in order to revamp the Australian healthcare delivery model and this in turn will help to promote equitable access to healthcare and alleviate the pressure from the public hospitals of Australia. These healthcare reforms towards the improvement in the healthcare delivery approach via bringing structural change in the healthcare also has certain level of strategic planning with long-term goals and outcomes. The review published by Dixit and Sambasivan (2018) highlighted that the healthcare system in Australia is potentially dealing with two principal problems and these included lack of proper resource allocation and overall improvement in the performance of the healthcare professionals based on the patients outcomes. Reforms in bringing change in the healthcare delivery model can be said to be an outcome of the interdisciplinary research approach which emphasize over the performance management, quality of care and overall patient outcomes.
The Australian Government is also taking active initiatives in order to improve the elective surgery and emergency units via framing reforms, which supports the development of new buildings with advanced facilities in operation theatres and emergency department eds. New services are also being implemented in order to decrease the overall pressure from the healthcare professionals working in the emergency unit. One such initiative include after-hours general physicians (GP) telephone advice service which will help the patients to access or consult the GP if required and this will eventually help both the service users and the service gives to effectively handle any urgent situation (Australian Government – Department of Health, 2011).
Thus from the above discussion it can be said the healthcare reforms in Australia in mainly guided by the effective strategic planning and long-terms goals in order to reduce the prevailing health inequalities among the Australian population with a special mention to the aboriginal community members. However, there are also evidences of few underlying political agenda. Like investment in quality improvement of the healthcare masks the need for improvement in the inequalities in the social determinants in health and this pronounce the political agenda behind the reforms. However, the majority of the healthcare reforms in Australia starting from the healthcare delivery and telephonic access to GP can have strategic decision making approach.
References
ABC News Australia. (2016). Want to improve the nation’s health? Start by reducing inequalities and improving living conditions. Access date: 3rd August. 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-01/improve-the-nations-health-by-reducing-inequalities/7805204
Australian Government – Department of Health. (2011). The national health reform agenda – implications for CVD. Access date: 3rd August. 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/cardio-pubs-revresp-toc~cardio-pubs-revresp-nat
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2006). Health inequalities in Australia: morbidity, health behaviours, risk factors and health service use. Access date: 3rd August. 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/health-inequalities-australia/contents/table-of-contents
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2016). Australia’s health 2016. Access date: 3rd August. 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/australias-health-2016/contents/determinants
Dixit, S. K., & Sambasivan, M. (2018). A review of the Australian healthcare system: A policy perspective. SAGE open medicine, 6, 2050312118769211.
Taylor, M. J., McNicholas, C., Nicolay, C., Darzi, A., Bell, D., & Reed, J. E. (2014). Systematic review of the application of the plan–do–study–act method to improve quality in healthcare. BMJ Qual Saf, 23(4), 290-298.
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