Tag Archives: AHHA

Dec 19 2017

NACCHO Aboriginal Health :The @AusHealthcare blueprint ‘Healthy people, healthy systems maps out how to give Australians a 21st century health system’

 

” We’re giving Health Ministers an early Christmas gift, over the past nine months Australian health leaders mapped out how to transform our healthcare system into a fit for purpose 21st century system that will meet the needs and expectations of Australians.

‘Healthy people, healthy systems is a solid blueprint with a range of short, medium and long term recommendations on how to reorientate our healthcare system to focus on patient outcomes and value rather than throughput and vested interests.”

Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA) Chief Executive Alison Verhoeven. see Part 1 Below

Download Healthy people, healthy systems  ahha_blueprint_2017

 “For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, institutional racism in hospitals and health services fundamentally underpins racial inequalities in health.

It forms a barrier to accessing healthcare, and must be acknowledged and addressed in order to realise health equality.

A matrix has been developed for identifying, measuring and monitoring institutional racism. Simple and cost-effective to administer, research to date shows its value as both an internal and external assessment tool “

(Marrie & Marrie 2014). See Section 2 Performance information and reporting

“ The need for integrated care, workforce development and reform and a reorientation to primary and preventive care were central recommendations.

We would welcome more performance reporting on such measures as patient reported health outcomes and experiences of care and deeper examination of how that care will be delivered in the future and by whom.

“Prevention funding needs to be increased and to be explicitly tied to evidence-based interventions.

We strongly support many of the aims of the report Healthy people, healthy systems.”

CEO of the Consumers Health Forum, Leanne Wells See Part 2 Below .

” Great blueprint by AHHA  for a Post-2020 National Health Agreement. Fantastic to see it aligning with PHAA’s key principles of universal healthcare, a holistic view of health and well being, and health equity. ”

Public Health Association Australia

Part 1 AHHA Press Release

‘In 2018 Health Ministers and First Ministers will negotiate and agree new public hospital funding arrangements—if Ministers are committed to a healthy Australia supported by the best possible healthcare system they simply need to direct their health departments to begin rolling out the recommendations found in the blueprint.

‘Health Ministers must be more ambitious than agreeing what public hospital funding arrangements will look like after 2020. The health sector is adamant it’s time we move our system toward value-based care and away from more of the same and tinkering around the edges.

‘To do this we outline four steps with recommendations on governance arrangements, data and reporting that drives intelligent system design, health workforce reform and sustainable funding that is dependable yet innovative.

‘An independent national health authority distinct from Commonwealth, state and territory health departments  reporting directly to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) or the COAG Health Council would help take the politics and finger pointing out of health reform and allow for a nationally unified and regionally controlled health system.

‘Requiring all health service providers delivering government funded or reimbursed services to supply data on patient outcomes and other service provision dimensions will better inform system performance and help us move toward publicly available outcomes data that will empower patients to make informed choices about treatment options and providers.

‘A national health workforce reform strategy is required that goes beyond the supply and location of health practitioners and considers roles and responsibilities needed to achieve a health workforce that is flexible, competent, working to the top of their scope of practice, and actively participating in the design and delivery of health services.

‘Maintaining current Commonwealth funding levels for public hospitals, including the growth formula, will provide sustainable and appropriate support, but we need to be more innovative in our move toward value-based care. In the short term, trialling a mixed funding formula with a 25% component for achieved health outcomes relating to the top 4 chronic diseases is a start.

‘It’s time to step out of our comfort zones and transform fragmented healthcare in Australia. The blueprint’s recommendations are a good place to start. We thank the many health leaders, clinicians and consumers who have contributed to this work.’

For more information on AHHA, see: http://ahha.asn.au

To read the Healthy people, healthy systems. Strategies for outcome-focused and value-based healthcare: a blueprint for a post-2020 national health agreement, see: http://ahha.asn.au/blueprint

The Consumers Health Forum welcomes the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association’s blueprint for a national health agreement as a much-need stimulus for a serious rethink of Australia’s health system.

“We strongly support many of the aims of the report Healthy people, healthy systems,”

the CEO of the Consumers Health Forum, Leanne Wells said.

“In too many corners of Australia’s health system, whether it be Medicare, primary care, prevention or health insurance, there is a lack of rigorous evaluation and less than optimal use of available data and knowledge to improve services.

“We back AHHA’s call for Australia to re-orientate the healthcare system over the next 10 years by enabling outcomes-focused and value-based health care,” Ms Wells said.

“We agree that the national hospitals agreement requires reform, that it, should be negotiated for the longer-term and that we need much better coordination and integration to promote consumer-centred health care.

“While there is undoubtedly a pressing need for a more nationally cohesive leadership and administration of health, we are not sure a national health authority as prescribed by AHHA would achieve this.  It could risk imposing another layer of management and decision-making with no certainty of any benefit.

“On the other hand, moves to greater regional coordination of health services, is the best way to achieve integrated locally responsive services. We know that integration is best achieved when decisions about how services are configured and organised are taken as close to the point of care delivery as possible by people who know and understand local services and need.  Joint planning, funds pooling and joint commissioning by PHNs and LHDs should be actively explored.

“We would urge governments to note the consistency of advice coming from Australian health leaders about how we can strengthen and improve our health system.

CHF presented an Issues Paper containing our ideas for health system improvements to Minister Hunt at our Consumer and Community Roundtable in August, see:

https://chf.org.au/sites/default/files/docs/chf_ministerial_roundatble_issues_paper_final.pdf

“The need for integrated care, workforce development and reform and a reorientation to primary and preventive care were central recommendations.

“We would welcome more performance reporting on such measures as patient reported health outcomes and experiences of care and deeper examination of how that care will be delivered in the future and by whom.

“Prevention funding needs to be increased and to be explicitly tied to evidence-based interventions.

“AHHA’s chair, Dr Deborah Cole, states that if there is a genuine commitment to delivering patient-centred care that improves health outcomes, consumers must be genuinely engaged in co-designing services and how the entire health system functions across hospitals, primary healthcare and prevention activities.

“We fully agree and hope all health leaders would actively support that rationale.  Only when we involve consumer insights in planning and evaluation will achieve better health, better experience of care and better value care” Ms Wells said.

The Healthy people, healthy systems report is at:

http://ahha.asn.au/sites/default/files/docs/policy-issue/ahha_blueprint_2017.pdf

May 26 2017

NACCHO #SorryDay #NRW2017 supports @HeartAust and AHHA @AusHealthcare 18 Hospitals signed to #Lighthouse Hospital Project

 

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are two-and-a-half times more likely to be admitted to hospital for heart events than non-Indigenous Australians.

For both sexes, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are more likely to have high blood pressure, be obese, smoke and a poor diet.”

Chief Executive Officer Heart Foundation Adjunct Professor John Kelly see Part 2 below Heart map

 ” I thought I was healthy and was quite prepared to ignore the warning signs.

I had a heart attack and survived. It could have been very different.

Having had the scare of a lifetime, Winmar made immediate changes 

At the time I had to change a lot of my dieting, the way you use salts in your food, alcohol, smoking. Those were the sacrifices you have to do as well, which don’t come easily,

“You’ve got to make that choice if you want to fulfil the rest of your life. I’m 52 this year and hopefully [for] another 10 or 15 years I’ll still be around.”

Heart and home: Nicky Winmar and his second chance at life

Nicky Winmar is famously remembered as the Indigenous player who confronted the crowd and pointed to his skin at Victoria Park in the early 1990s in a triumphant stand against racism in footy see full story Part 3 :

A chance meeting with the ACT chief executive of the Heart Foundation, Tony Stubbs, meant he simply had to endorse its message about a positive diet and lifestyle, especially with what’s at stake in Indigenous communities

” NACCHO will provide leadership and guidance to the Lighthouse team in enabling the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and Aboriginal health workforce to be intimately involved in designing and implementing the program.

We are very supportive of this program and its contribution to National Sorry Day today, and to Reconciliation Week which starts tomorrow ’

CEO of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) Patricia Turner pictured below

Download Press Release

Media Release_Sorry Day_Joint HF AHHA NACCHO V2 l

Part 1 : Press Release 18 hospitals sign up to close the gap in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heart health

Eighteen hospitals from around Australia have signed up to the Lighthouse Hospital Project aimed at improving the hospital treatment of coronary heart disease among Indigenous Australians.

See Info HERE Phase 3

Lighthouse is operated and managed by the Heart Foundation and the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA). It is funded by the Australian Government.

The 18 hospitals cover almost one-half of all cardiac admissions in Australia for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Heart Foundation National CEO Adjunct Professor John Kelly said closing the gap in cardiovascular disease between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians was a key Heart Foundation priority, and it was highly appropriate that today’s announcement coincided with National Sorry Day.

‘Cardiac care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is serious business. Australia’s First Peoples are more likely to have heart attacks than non-Indigenous Australians, and more likely to have early heart disease onset coupled with other health problems, frequent hospital admissions and premature death[1].

‘Deaths happen at almost twice the rate for non-Indigenous Australians, yet Indigenous Australians appear to have fewer tests and treatments while in hospital, and discharge from hospital against medical advice is five times as high[2]’, Professor Kelly said.

AHHA CEO Alison Verhoeven says that Lighthouse aims to ensure Indigenous Australians receive appropriate evidence-based care in a culturally safe manner.

‘A critical component of success will be close and genuine collaboration with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, communities and organisations in the design and implementation of the activities.

‘To borrow from the words of the Prime Minister, Lighthouse will encourage and support hospitals to do things ‘with’ Aboriginal people not ‘to’ them[3].

Free Blood Pressure HERE

See Previous NACCHO Heart Posts

“Many of the hospital admissions for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are preventable and the Heart Foundation is committed to closing the gap in health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.”

Heart Foundation National Chief Executive Officer Adjunct Professor John Kelly said these maps brought together for the first time a national picture of hospital admission rates for heart-related conditions at a national, state and regional level.

Or Download report and press release

Australian Heart Maps Report 2016

What is the Lighthouse hospital project?

  • The Lighthouse hospital project is a joint initiative of the Heart Foundation and the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA).
  • The aim: to improve care and health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples experiencing coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death among this population.

Australia is a privileged nation by world standards. Despite this, not everyone is equal when it comes to heart health and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the most disadvantaged. The reasons are complex and not only medical in nature. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a troubled history with institutions of all kinds, including hospitals.

The Lighthouse Hospital project aims to change this experience by providing both a medically and culturally safe hospital environment. A culturally safe approach to healthcare respects, enhances and empowers the cultural identity and wellbeing of an individual.

This project matters because the facts are sobering. Cardiovascular disease occurs earlier, progresses faster and is associated with greater co-morbidities in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. They are admitted to hospital and suffer premature death more frequently compared with non-Indigenous Australians[1].

Major coronary events, such as heart attacks, occur at a rate three times that of the non- Indigenous population. Fatalities because of these events are 1.5 times more likely to occur, making it a leading contributor to the life expectancy gap [2].

PART 3

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/nicky-winmar-and-the-moment-he-got-his-second-chance-20170525-gwd8g4.html

Nicky Winmar thought he was healthy and was quite prepared to ignore the warning signs.

The former AFL champion was only 46 and initially dismissed his chest pains as indigestion. Even the next morning, as the pains continued, it took Winmar’s partner to convince him to see a doctor.

Thankfully they got to him in time. Winmar was admitted to hospital and had surgery to insert a stent in an artery. A great of the St Kilda Football Club, he’d had a heart attack and survived. It could have been very different.

That scary episode five years ago has served as Winmar’s wake-up call. His father died the same way, aged 50, on the eve of Winmar’s solitary appearance in an AFL grand final 20 years ago.

“The doctor looked at me and put me in a room with all these machines and said I was having a heart attack,” Winmar recalls.

“It knocked me for six. I’d always trained hard and kept myself well with good food. It gave me a shake-up.

“They put a stent in an artery to keep it open. Afterwards I was so weak I couldn’t get out of bed. I had to learn to walk again.”

Having had the scare of a lifetime, Winmar made immediate changes

“At the time I had to change a lot of my dieting, the way you use salts in your food, alcohol, smoking. Those were the sacrifices you have to do as well, which don’t come easily,” Winmar said.

“You’ve got to make that choice if you want to fulfil the rest of your life. I’m 52 this year and hopefully [for] another 10 or 15 years I’ll still be around.”

Winmar is famously remembered as the Indigenous player who confronted the crowd and pointed to his skin at Victoria Park in the early 1990s in a triumphant stand against racism in footy. The moment was captured by an Age photographer, Wayne Ludbey, and remains an iconic image in footy history.

Then last year Winmar publicly supported his son to highlight the importance of gay rights. Winmar had little to do with his son for nearly 20 years and the pair hadn’t spoken for a decade until, three years ago, Tynan Winmar decided it was time to reconnect and tell his father about his sexuality.

When Nicky Winmar decides to support a cause, he throws his full weight behind it. A chance meeting with the ACT chief executive of the Heart Foundation, Tony Stubbs, meant he simply had to endorse its message about a positive diet and lifestyle, especially with what’s at stake in Indigenous communities.

“When I first met him, he took a step back, thought about it and said this is my opportunity to do something about it,” Stubbs said.

The statistics around heart disease and Indigenous communities are disturbing.

“It’s the biggest single killer of Indigenous Australians,” Stubbs said.

“It’s nearly twice the rate of death of non-Indigenous. We think that gap is too big and we actually want to do something about that and bridge that.

“Unfortunately the Indigenous smoking rate is about 43 per cent, which is about two-and-a-half times the non-Indigenous rate. And in remote areas it’s actually 60 per cent.

“One of the key messages is around quitting smoking and making that decision. Certainly Nicky has done that. And he’s found a huge amount of benefit from that.”

Winmar has a simple message for those in Indigenous communities.

“It’s the No.1 killer in Indigenous communities and towns and country areas that we come from,” he said.

“It’s important that you do go and see your local GP with symptoms that do happen. Ring triple zero and do something about it straight away.”

Winmar is a Saints great across more than 200 matches but played his final AFL season with the Western Bulldogs in 1999. He enjoyed last year’s Doggies breakthrough premiership, especially because they were coached by his friend Luke Beveridge, but the thought of St Kilda’s first flag since 1966 brings a big smile to his face.

Perhaps a smile as big as the one he had when he realised he had a second chance.

1] Austalian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) 2016. Australia’s health 2016. Australia’s health series no. 15. Cat. No AUS 199. Canberra: AIHW

[2] AIHW 2014, CHD and COPD in Indigenous Australians, Cat.No IHW 126

[3] Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. 10 February 2016. Speech to Parliament on the 2016 Closing the Gap Report.

Jul 11 2016

NACCHO #HealthElection16 : Coalition win : Its time for strategic vision and leadership for health says AHHA

Page 6

 

“A re-elected Turnbull Government must show strong and strategic leadership to ensure our world-class health system is able to provide care for all Australians, regardless of where they live or how much money they have. This is a clear message from the very tight election result,”

Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association Chief Executive Alison Verhoeven.

Coalition committed to Closing the Gap

OR See page 6 Aboriginal Health Newspaper for Coalition policy

mc-ahha

“Close the Gap Day is a reminder for the entire healthcare sector about how far we still have to go to remove health inequalities between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and other Australians,”

The AHHA is proud to support organisations that work to close the gap. We recently signed an agreement with Australia’s national peak body representing over 150 Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services, the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO).

This has brought together the experiences of health service providers that work in the public and not-for-profit health sector across Australia and local Aboriginal controlled health organisations working in local communities .

Through this agreement we can be a more effective united voice in speaking together to improve the design and delivery of health services for Aboriginal peoples “

Picture above Australia’s biggest Aboriginal health and public healthcare and hospitals bodies recently signed a national agreement to work together to close the gap in Aboriginal health.

See this previous NACCHO Post  

Photo above Chairpersons Dr Paul Dugdale (AHHA) and Matthew Cooke (NACCHO)

Coalition win : Its time for strategic vision and leadership for health says AHHA

In congratulating the Coalition Government on its re-election, Ms Verhoeven said, “While the Coalition’s recent health initiatives have made some amends for the damaging cuts in the 2014 Budget, some policies continue to exacerbate issues of access, equity and sustainability.”

“Strong and strategic leadership is needed from the Commonwealth as the steward of Australia’s health system and this requires effective partnership with state and territory governments. It also requires listening and working collaboratively with all health stakeholders, not just select groups.

“Australia has a high quality health system delivering world-class health outcomes for many, but for some groups, health outcomes are poor. As the population ages, rates of chronic disease increase and consumer demand grows, the health system is under increasing pressure.

“With a number of review processes underway, the Turnbull Government must ensure its health system reforms are innovative, patient-centred, sustainable and adequately funded, evidence-based and data-informed, and must look beyond siloed issues and consider their impacts on the broader health system.”

“A number of primary care reform packages, for example in chronic disease, mental health and drugs and addictions, underscore the vital role Primary Health Networks (PHNs) play in implementing the Commonwealth’s reform agenda.”

“It is essential that PHNs are provided with appropriate long-term, flexible funding and operational support to enable them to address the needs of their communities and develop innovative solutions to promote better health outcomes. Simply providing PHNs with extra responsibilities but no additional operational resourcing is unsustainable.”

“Adequate primary care funding, linked to quality of care, is required to address the growing burden of chronic disease. The Turnbull Government’s Health Care Homes trial needs appropriate resourcing and an overriding focus on quality outcomes to be truly effective. A properly-resourced chronic disease strategy would help millions of Australians improve their quality of life, and provide economic benefits by reducing the impact of chronic disease on the workforce.”

“While bulk-billing rates for GP services are currently relatively high, they are not an accurate measure of affordability or inequality in the health system, and the current Medicare freeze in general practice disproportionately impacts the viability of services provided to many of our most vulnerable people.”

“The short-term reversals of decisions likely to impact bulkbilling of pathology and imaging services have focused on service provider viability and profits, and do not provide long-term assurance. The affordability of these services for consumers must be the priority.”

“While public hospitals have temporary funding support until 2020, securing a post-2020 agreement focused on innovation, better system integration and quality outcomes for consumers will require Commonwealth leadership and genuine, bi-partisan partnerships with the states and territories. A long-term accord between the Commonwealth and the states and territories would be a positive step forward.

“Australia spends less on public health and prevention than most OECD countries, and our increasing burden of chronic disease intensifies the need for investment in evidence-based preventive health strategies. Longstanding support for preventive action on immunisation and tobacco has shown how successful preventive care can be in improving the health of Australians.

“Information technology structures in place to support Medicare, universal healthcare and the health data housed within are critical infrastructure. The Turnbull Government must provide clarity on its vision for maintaining and securing these national assets, and how it will make more strategic use of this data to better inform health policy.”

The AHHA calls on the re-elected Turnbull Government to commit to a long-term vision for healthcare, including the provision of appropriate funding commitments to support primary, acute, aged and disability care, to ensure all Australians can access quality care regardless of their income or where they live.

For more information on the AHHA, visit

http://ahha.asn.au.

The Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association is the national peak body for public and not-for-profit hospitals, Primary Health Networks, community and primary healthcare services, and advocates for universal, high quality and affordable healthcare to benefit the whole community.