What role do health care facilities and services play in achieving health for all Australians? Flashcards
Institutional health facilities and services
- Public and private acute care hospitals
- public psychiatric hospitals
- nursing homes and hostels
- ambulance
Non-institutional health facilities and services
- medical servies e.g. GP
- Dental
- Pharmaceutical
- Admin and research
- Other health services
Primary health care
- GPS
- nurses
- midwives
- dentists
- aboriginal health workers
Secondary health care
Referral by a GP
- hospital or clinic
- therapists, psychiatrists
- physiotherapists
Responsibility of the Commonwealth Government
- Formation of national health policies
- collection of taxes to finance the health system
- Pharmaceutical funding
Responsibility of the State Government
- Hospital services
- Mental health
- Home and community care
- dental health
- Women’s health
- Family health services
- health promotion
- immunisation programs
Responsibility of the local government
- Environmental control
- Meals on Wheels
- Antenatal clinics
Responsibility of the private sector
- Private hospitals
- dentists
- private health insurance
Responsibility of community groups
- Cancer Council, Dads in Distress, Diabetes Australia etc
- encourage preventative health strategies through the community
Equity of access to health facilities and services (for)
- Medicare
- PBS
- Bulk Billing
- special government programs
- language support
- royal flying doctor services
Equity of access to health facilities and services (Against)
- People with low SES unable to access full healthcare as some medicare services are not free of charge
- Low SES also means lower levels of education, meaning less knowledge of risk factors and protective measures
- Rural and remote communities lack access to amount of health services that urban areas have
- Immigrant populations may also face language barrier issues
- Those with lower levels of education may not be aware or know how to navigate the PBS scheme
Health care expenditure
Is the allocation of funding and other economic resources for the provision and consumption of health services:
1. Recurrent expenditure - regular ongoing costs such as salaries, bandages etc.
2. Capital expenditure - infrequent costs on infrastructure such as buildings and health care facilities
Expenditure on prevention and early intervention
- Reducing the likelihood that a disease or disorder will affect an individual
- major prevention activities include good hygiene, safe environments, sanitation, good food and a good water supply
- The biggest early intervention strategy currently used in Australia is cancer screening programs e.g. breast, prostate , cervix and skin
- more than 90% of health expenditure is allocated to curative services
- increasing the funds for preventative care includes: overall cost-effectiveness in the long-term, improvements to quality of life, improved access and education, maintenance of social equity, the reinforcement of individual responsibility for health, reduce impact on carers and increased life expectancy
- e.g. cancer screening programs and childhood vaccinations
Positive impacts of emerging new treatments and technologies on health care
- more effective/reliable
- less invasive
- can allow earlier detection
- can reduce the number of follow ups
- technologies are easier to access as they are mobile
- shorter recovery times
- reducing burden of disease on individuals and communities
- new drugs e.g. chemotherapy
- ultrasounds
negative impacts of emerging new treatments and technologies on health care
- new technologies and treatments are more costly
- only available in certain hospitals and areas, generally urban cities
- leads to further increase in the ageing of our population and the rise in chronic diseases
- if not subsidised by medicare, low SES people may not be able to access expensive treatments
- little access in rural and remote areas
