As the State faces an uncertain economic future with the pandemic draining the public purse, a looming recession and a significant burden of chronic disease and health inequity, key decisions about funding,
resourcing and service priorities are only going to get tougher. However, currently, consumers do not have a seat at the table to help shape these decisions even though their health care and health outcomes are directly affected by them.
At Health Consumers Queensland’s latest Consumer Conversation on how consumers can have a seat at the decision-making table to influence funding priorities, 27 consumers welcomed a commitment from
Nick Steele, the Deputy Director General of the Healthcare Purchasing and System Performance Division at Queensland Health, to approach the Leadership Board about involving consumers from the start in
the tough decisions which need to be made over the next five years. Nick said: “Consumer engagement is important all the time but it is even more important when we’re going through tough times financially because we’ve got hard choices to make and to make those choices without consumer engagement is the wrong thing to do and a real risk…We need to be brave and have these conversations.”