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Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the government's health reform plan on Thursday, aiming to keep Australians with chronic diseases and complex conditions out of hospital and provide them with tailored services.
The plan, the Healthier Medicare package, is believed to be one of the biggest health system reforms since the introduction of Medicare 30 years ago.
According to the prime minister, patients with multiple chronic conditions will get a health care package tailored to their needs and that care will then be co-ordinated to help them easily navigate the complex system.
The reform is apparently an effort by the government to alleviate the burden of the public health system as statistics show that half of all potentially avoidable hospital admissions in 2013/14 were attributed to chronic conditions. That is one every two to three minutes.
As many as one-in-five Australians live with two or more chronic health conditions.
The most prominent are diabetes, heart disease, cancer, mental health, eye disease, respiratory conditions and arthritis, requiring a range of health services from their GP through to specialists, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, psychologists, dieticians and weight-loss programs.
The primary care package will be trialled through creating Health Care Homes that will be responsible for the ongoing co-ordination, management and support of a patient's care.
Some 65,000 Australians will be able to participate in the initial trials in up to 200 medical practices.
A chronically-ill patient will be able to nominate one General Practitioner (GP) as his/her "home base" to get simplified care.
This reform, together with the government's other reform such as new digital MyHealth Record, will arguably empower patients to take better control of their own care.
The federal government will invite state and territory leaders to partner with the Commonwealth on these reform at the Council of Australian Governments meeting on Friday.
While admitting the need for Australia's health system to better manage patients with chronic conditions, the opposition said Turnbull's proposal "comes with little funding, and little detail".
Australian Greens Leader and former public health doctor Richard Di Natale also said the plan "has acknowledged the right problem but allocated the wrong resourcing".
