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Enhancing Liveability and Features of Australia’s health policy-
Australia’s health system is one of the best in the world, the system is safe and affordable for all Australians. It is run by all levels of government including federal, state and territory, and local.
Providing quality, safe and affordable health care. It’s a reason why we enjoy one of the longest life expectancies from around the world.
Medicare
Medicare is and has been Australia’s health care system since the year 1984. It revolves around 3 key ideas/parts; medical services, public hospitals and medicines.
Medicare is available to Australian and New Zealand citizens. Medicare helps to cover the costs of public and private hospital services. These include services from GPs and specialists. Another important part of Medicare is the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and the, the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) these are lists of services that the Government Pays for, especially targeted at helping people with low income or people who are on pensions. It helps by making sure the patients are paying less for services, this helps to make prescription medicines cheaper, and medicines without the PBS and MBS would become more expensive.
Primary health networks and Private health insurance
Many Australians have health insurance and or a primary health network. There are 2 kinds of cover; hospital cover for some or all of the costs of treatment as a private patient and general treatment cover for some non-medical health services not covered by Medicare such as dental and optical services. Primary health networks (PHNs) is an organisation that looks after health services in local areas. PHNs helps to support the community and it’s services for example doctors, how they assess the health needs of their patients in the local area, improving the health care in areas making it more livable and a more desirable place to live.
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Responsibilities of our local, state and territory governments
Australian’s, state, territory, and local government politicians share the responsibility of running our health system. The healthcare system responsibilities list is long it includes looking after and managing; MBS, PBS, monitoring and regulating private and primary insurance, managing the aging population, funding the community, funding mental health, funding veterans and medical research as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, maintaining the number of doctors, buying vaccines, having access to transplants and emergency services, looking after medicines and medical devices, licensing and monitoring health premises, ensuring a supply of safe and affordable blood products and a safe food supply in Australia and New Zealand, managing private and public hospitals, providing dental clinics, registering health professionals, and responding to national health emergencies. Our government is making Australia more liveable by helping our healthcare system to be one of the best in the world, making Australia a great place to live… at least by the health care system.
Health challenges
Australian health system is not perfect it does have some faults, some of which include…
Our ageing population, with an older population we need new types of services. For new problems, including Australia’s aging population, more flexible and well-trained health specialists throughout Australia and New Zealand will be needed.
Chronic diseases, there has lately been a rise in chronic conditions, increasing the need for a more personal-centred treatment.
Health and medical research, medicine advancements have completely changed healthcare. However, advances are costly and come with problems, such as who or what to test things on.
New technology, new technologies have an impact on health and medical services from digital health to automated health and diagnostics. These improve the health system, but can affect the patients.
Cost, in 2016-2017, the Australian government, spent $181 billion on the health system. Health spending was 10% of gross domestic product, meaning $1 from every $10 spent went to healthcare.
As one of the best healthcare systems from around the world Australia’s health system is quality, safe and affordable. The quality of our doctors and the entire system is another reason that makes Australia all the more liveable. Through the use of medicare Australian’s are able to enjoy a cheaper and more enjoyable lifestyle for themselves. Let’s just say that some perks of our system is that it is cheaper and better quality all helping us to live a better life, all making Australia more liveable as a community.
The Community – (Five Dock)
Five Dock Medical system is a bulk billing area located in Sydney’s western suburbs it provides so many different health services, catering for all people who need help and thanks to medicare most of the bills can be claimed and paid for by our government.
The doctors in five dock are dedicated to helping everyone with personalised, professional, quality healthcare. Five Dock has multiple doctors whom all specialise in one or more specific areas such as; aged care, diabetes, hypertension, men’s health, women’s health, children’s health, medicine, travel medicine and occupational health, and or a general practitioner (GP). The services in the Five Dock area focus on families and doing their best to provide their patients and their families with the very best, quality healthcare. Within the Five dock area there are also multiple dental clinics, optometrists, counselors and psychologists. The Australian healthcare policy helps the Five dock community by lessening the expensives and pressure of paying bills.
References
- Australia.gov.au – The official website of the Australian government, providing information on various topics, including health care and policies.
- Health.gov.au – The website of the Australian Department of Health, providing information and resources on Australia’s health system and policies.
- Medicare Australia – The official website of Medicare Australia, providing information on Medicare services, coverage, and benefits.
- Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) – The official website of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, providing information on medicines covered by the scheme and how it works.
- Department of Human Services – The website of the Australian Department of Human Services, providing information on various services and benefits, including health insurance.
- Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) – The professional body for general practitioners in Australia. Their website provides resources and information on primary healthcare in Australia.
- Australian Medical Association (AMA) – The peak medical body in Australia, representing doctors and medical students. Their website provides access to research, policy statements, and news related to health care in Australia.
- Australian College of Nursing (ACN) – The national professional nursing organization in Australia. Their website provides resources and information on nursing practice and policy in Australia.
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) – An independent statutory agency that provides information and statistics on health and welfare in Australia. Their website includes reports, data, and publications on various health topics.
- PubMed – A database of scientific articles in the field of medicine and healthcare. It can be used to search for research papers and studies relevant to Australia’s health policy.
