Community Health First, an alliance of 24 registered community health services from across Victoria, including the Goulburn Valley, has presented the state government with five points of reform it says are essential.
The services met with government and sector leaders, including Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas, on Tuesday, July 11 to officially launch the Community Health First position paper Strengthening Victoria’s Health System through Community Health.
The report outlines a case for drastically changing the health model the state currently follows.
That case includes:
- Shifting more funding to prevention, rather than cure, saying research shows every dollar invested in preventative care can save $14 in the future.
- Partnering with community health services as an “established, authorised and trusted platform to improve outcomes”.
- Recognising that health outcomes are largely determined by social factors and elevating the importance of community health services to help reduce health inequity.
- Providing accessible, affordable and local primary health services, especially vulnerable groups in regional and rural communities.
- Increase funding to community health promotion to increase the scale and reach of evidence-based health promotion.
Primary Care Connect, based in Shepparton, is a member of the Community Health First alliance. Its chief executive, Tricia Quibell, said community health services reduced demand on Victoria’s overcrowded emergency departments and ambulance services, making them not only effective in health terms, but economically too.
“There’s a lot of evidence now that actually demonstrates that dollars spent in the preventative and early intervention space actually alleviate the pressures of the opposite end of the acute sector, and we know that cost-effective, well-funded systems that keep people healthy and well in our community are the way to go,” she said.
Ms Quibell also said community health services had greater success in reaching vulnerable communities.
“Not just in the Shepparton area, in Moira and Strathbogie and all the surrounding LGAs, we have significant pockets of vulnerability and we have communities which are not good at managing health concerns or even understanding their health concerns,” she said.
“I think for Shepparton, in particular, a lot of our migrant and refugee populations, our health system is still very mysterious to them in some ways, and the ability to offer services outside the hospital, clinical setting and into community is highly advantageous.”