Page 405 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 13 May 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
and service agreements; agreed levels of service provision and access; the development of incentives programs for strengthening management efficiency and clinical accountability in the health system; and developing national data standards for monitoring and evaluation.
Madam Speaker, the ACT is well placed for the upcoming negotiations as many aspects of this framework are already being developed here. Similarly, the ACT is well placed with respect to the national mental health policy which it contributed to developing. The policy emphasises moving of mental health services away from large institutions and integrating them across a range of acute hospital and community based services. The ACT already operates on this type of model. To parallel the national consumer advisory group that will be established under the policy, the ACT has already taken steps to develop a mental health advisory committee which will provide me with advice as to the further development of mental health services. Along with other States and Territories, we have sought the Commonwealth's commitment to funding of new mental health initiatives through the Medicare renegotiation process.
Ministers also ratified the joint agreement with the Commonwealth on the implementation of a program which will provide an organised approach to the prevention and management of cervical cancer. This has been developed after careful evaluation of Australian pilot programs and successful programs now operating overseas. The ACT is currently in the establishment phase of the program which will commence from the middle of the year. Agreement has also been reached on the extension of the national better health program for another year pending the final results of evaluation.
Ministers also discussed a progress report on the development of new national health goals and targets. Five groups of goals have been developed and these will reflect both health status outcomes and the complex series of factors which are known to influence these. The groups are preventable mortality and morbidity, health lifestyles and risk factors, health skills, health services, and healthy environments. The development of these national goals and targets reflects an increasing emphasis on the need to focus on outcomes of health services and in particular the primacy of the consumer.
Outcome based approaches, a theme which permeates the national health strategy review, are likely to emerge as an important ingredient of the new Medicare arrangement, not only with respect to the agreement with the States and Territories but also in the operation of health services in the private sector. Universal access and high-quality effective service are going to continue to be predominant themes at the national level, as indeed they are here in the ACT. Thank you, Madam Speaker and members, for the opportunity to present this statement in relation to the Australian Health Ministers Conference of April 1992. I table the following paper:
Australian Health Ministers Conference - Ministerial statement, 13 May 1992.
I move:
That the Assembly takes note of the paper.
Debate (on motion by Mr Humphries) adjourned.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .