Australian Health Policy Developments †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Australian Health Policy Developments. Answer: Introduction The Australian health sector has undergone many improvements over the past years. The sector has produced high quality services to citizens at reduced costs(Barrett, 2013). However, with the complexity of the health sector, the future is unpredictable. The future holds increase in demand for health services as the population increases. Over the past years, the health sector sought to reduce cost of health and improving the quality of health services. There is more pressure on health practitioners to ensure quality when offering services. Health practitioners have a lot to learn from the policies developed on health. There are more requirements from the practitioners in offering services. New method introduced into the health service sector requires practitioners to update their knowledge regularly(Chisolm, 2007). Quality Ensuring quality is evident in the health sector policies(Government, 2017 ). This refers to policies that insist that health services must be of the highest quality. The health sector ensures that patients are attended to with the due care and diligence. This requires that health practitioners keep up with changes in the field of health. This is such as learning of the new technology trends introduced in the field of health. The government introduction of the practice incentive programme is important in ensuring quality standards in health sector. The government through this programme ensures practitioners follow health reforms to the letter. The main drive is that the health sector ensures quality in services offered. The government over the years has allocated funds to ensure success of this programme(Bensley, 2009). The lesson evident from this policy is that health practitioners should observe high quality. Practitioners should be flexible in their operations to accommodate adde d services such as home based health care. This is the offering of health services at the comfort of peoples homes. Health practitioners should be able to understand how to give home based health care with the highest quality possible. There is also the lesson that the health sector is diverse and not just concentrated to hospitals. They should appreciate the increased demand for home based care and the government efforts to provide funds and equipment(Fertman, 2010). Cost Reduction Moreover, there is the lesson of cost reduction in health services. The policies require practitioners to ensure that they charge affordable prices (Christina, 2008). The government assist in reducing the cost by subsidising the health sector through such as giving free or cheap drugs. The government through the practice incentive programme ensures that there is more funding to health sector. The programme focusses on more quality but does not mean that the prices increase. The practitioners learn how to give high quality services and charge less for services(Coplan, 2011). Efficiency In addition to that is efficiency in health service provision. This is delivering health services while avoiding resource waste and optimisation of available resources(Fertman, 2010). The government policies require continuous quality improvement of the health sector. This is to ensure identification of problematic areas and solutions found. This is necessary to avoid waste of resources and ensuring optimisation of resources. The lesson learnt by health practitioners is to analyse their practice to identify problems. This plays part in eliminating problems to ensure maximum service delivery. The practitioners should ensure efficiency in all activities and in turn increased quality in health care sector. The practitioners should research on new methods to offer services in order to reduce wastage in the health sector. Efficiency is important in the health sector because quality is necessary. With the governments goal of spending less budget on health care, then practitioners should le arn how to be efficient(Barrett, 2013). There is also acceptable and patient centred services. This is giving services that consider the preferences of patients(Hall, 2011). The government policies ensures that all citizens receive proper health services. This means that the services should not discriminate on any individual or group. Therefore, practitioners require flexibility to adopt to the specific needs of patients. The patients demand various services such as home treatment instead of going to the hospital. The practitioners are required to fulfil the demands visiting the patients place and offering health services similar to those in hospitals. The government plays a large part in requirement for flexibility through introduction of home based care usually for the old or the terminally ill. The government provides facilities and funds to practitioners to ensure that they offer high quality services. Therefore, practitioners should be ready to adopt to this policy in the best way possible(Hodges, 2011). Safety Additionally there is the lesson on safety. This is giving health services that reduce risk and harm to the service receivers(Nelson, 2015). Safety adherence is a requirement in the health sector to reduce the risk of death and spread of diseases. The health sector policies mostly centre on ensuring that services offered and equipment used are safe. Lack of safety can lead to increase in the spread of a deadly communicable disease. The lessons that practitioners learn from this is to observe safety measures when dealing with patients. This requires the use of sterilized equipment and protecting further spread of illnesses. With the policies put in place there is a need for the practitioners to avoid legal consequences when they do not observe safety. Labour laws require practitioners to observe the safety of their patients(Permacharts, 2007). Equity There is also the lesson of equity in service delivery. This is the giving of services without observing the characteristics of an individual such as race or skin colour(Roth, 2010). Government policies require that practitioners attend to all individuals without discrimination. Practitioners should learn that each citizen has a right of receiving medical attention. The practitioners should learn the need to take care of each individual observing quality without variation due to certain characteristics. The government avails funds and equipment to health practitioners and thus requires that they attend to all citizens without discrimination(Roth, 2010). Moreover, there is accessibility of health services. This refers to the availability of health services and the necessary skills to respond to certain health needs. The government over the past years has equipped the health sector with all relevant resources. The government has provided health education and other resources such as funds. There is the need for practitioners to equip themselves with the relevant skills to treat illnesses. Practitioners require research in order to solve new illnesses that keep coming up. The lesson here is that the practitioners should always update themselves on how to treat new disease outbreaks(Scott, 2007). Effectiveness There is also the lesson on effectiveness, which on a health perspective is to ensure elimination of illnesses. The Australian over the past years have put a policy of eradicating common communicable infections(Videto, 2011). Therefore, proper measures put in place focus on ensuring that diseases do not continue spreading. The practitioners require equipping themselves with relevant skills to eliminate infections. The purpose of this is to align with the government policies that require eradication of illnesses. The practitioners are required to keep experimenting on new ways to cure illnesses and control their spread. The government offers the necessary equipment to make this successful(Videto, 2011). Integration of health policies with policies that influence health of indigenous people The Australian government ensures all citizens proper health through creating policies (Teena, 2010). This policies aim at ensuring that all citizens receive proper health care. The government policies on health protect the indigenous people of Australia such as the Aboriginals and the Torres Island People. The government establishes a work plan to ensure that the indigenous people benefit from health services. The government health policies collaborate with policies set for indigenous people. The need for this is to bridge the gap between the originals and non-indigenous. Moreover, there is the aim of the government to avail proper health to all citizens equally. The government realises the fact that the originals could easily be discriminated on health issues. Therefore, the government ensures that there are specific policies put in place to improve the health of the originals. The originals require special plans because their culture hinders them from using modern medical practice s. The originals require education on how to stay healthy and prevent themselves from illnesses. The government includes them in research for new drugs to treat illnesses affecting the aboriginals. There is the need to collaborate with the originals when coming up with medicines to accommodate their traditional methods. The government appreciates use of herbs and other cultural health beliefs (Bensley, 2009). The government recognises the aboriginals as the first Australian people and have a right to access proper health care(Coplan, 2011). The aboriginals receive high quality services and at affordable prices. The health sector avoids racism at all costs to ensure that the indigenous people get health services. There are strategies put in place to tackle social inequalities to enable achievement of health quality. The government pushes for health sector policies that increase the life expectancy of the originals. The indigenous face stress because of displacement by immigrants. Therefore, the health services should help reduce this stress. The government responds to this issue by offering counselling services to the stressed individuals. This helps reduce stress level and in turn reduce illnesses caused by stress. The government also gives drugs that relive stress to the originals to ensure that stress caused infections reduce. The health sector tries to campaign against harmful cultures that cause illnesses. The government recognises the cultures and tries to ensure continuity of those that do not cause illness (McConnell, 2014). Health policies The policy of equality in health standards integrates with policies affecting the originals(Permacharts, 2007). The reason for this integration is the fact that all citizens require health services without discrimination. This policy uses the human rights approach to ensure equal services for the indigenous people. Human rights help to realise hidden risks that the indigenous people face. Therefore, this approach ensures better services for the indigenous persons to put them at same level as non-indigenous people. The constitutional approach of this policy ensures that indigenous persons are not discriminated from receiving proper health services. In addition to that is the policy of forming health partnerships with stakeholders(Hodges, 2011). The government formed partnerships with the aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander people. This partnership creates an effective platform to engage communities about their health needs. The state partners with indigenous people representatives to ensure of prioritisation their needs. The priorities come from consultations with community leaders who give feedback to the government. Partnership policy in this way affects the indigenous people positively by including them in decision-making. This policy improves health of the indigenous who face the risk of discrimination (Leiyu, 2015). Additionally there is the policy on accountability on health issues(Government, 2017 ). The government should be accountable by putting measuring the success of their actions. This policy affects all Australia citizens with the aim of trying to increase their life expectancy. The commitment is to ensure bridging the gap between the life expectancies of originals and non-originals. The government ensures monitoring of health standards to ensure high quality. When all citizens get equal high quality health services, the life expectancies increase. Moreover, there is the policy of practice based on evidence(Hall, 2011). The objective of this policy is to ensure that all health activities have support with evidence from research. Data collection is necessary to make research successful. This policy is important in ensuring that health services suit the group affected. This means putting people in the middle of their health care services to enable get information from them first hand. This policy ensures that the aboriginals get health services tailor made for them. The government through this policy gets information about health needs of the originals and avail health services to them. The government ensures conduct of research on diseases affecting the indigenous people. They are out at the centre of experiments to come up with the correct cause of illness from the exact individuals. With these actions, the government shows commitment to protect the indigenous people from poor health (Anon, 2017). The other policy is on recognition of herbs and other cultural treatment methods(Government, 2017 ). The original people lack exposure to modern medicines that treat diseases effectively. They continue using herbs to heal diseases or reduce effect of illnesses. The government realises this fact and appreciates the culture that does not allow use of non-herbal medicines. Therefore, the government sponsors research in the herbs to ensure the originals do not use deadly herbs. They incorporate herbal medicine with non-herbal medicine so that the originals can accept the drugs. This commitment by the government shows concern for the indigenous people and willingness to give them proper health care. Additionally there is the policy of giving proper health at all life stages (Christina, 2008). The government includes ensures that this policy applies to all citizens of the country. The government tailors different health plans for each group stage of individuals. There are plans put in pace for the young. Middle aged and the old. The reason for this variation is the different illnesses for each group. For example, the old people have illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Therefore, the government should find ways to treat illnesses based on the age groups. This policy does not discriminate against the indigenous people living in Australia. The government also undertakes research on the age groups to understand specific illnesses affecting the originals. The government does not leave the originals behind when making this type of policies. They are important in research and assisting in coming up with solutions to illnesses(Fertman, 2010). Conclusion Therefore, practitioners in the Australian health sector should stay informed on government policies. This is necessary to ensure that they adopt to changes brought by government policies. They should learn from the policies and acquire the necessary skills required. The government however plays a huge role in equipping the practitioners with facilities and funds. The Australian government faces the challenge of providing health facilities to all citizens equally. Finally, to achieve quality health standards, practitioners should equip themselves with the right health knowledge. The responsibility of the government is to incorporate all citizens in their health plans. Therefore, the government should ensure protection of all citizens in the health policies. The citizens have rights to receive health services, which the government should provide without failure. The originals need consideration by the government and special attention to protect them from discrimination. The health sector require undertaking proper research to come up with medicines suitable for all citizens. 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