5 Jun 2020
This week we hosted two Consumer Conversations to seek the consumer view of what Queensland Health’s Funding Priorities should be for 2020/2021. In all, 42 consumers were involved from our our COVID-19 Community of Interest Group, members of the Health Consumers Collaborative of Queensland and our own Consumer Advisory Group (CAG) as well as HHS CAG Leaders and consumer representatives from some of the Statewide Clinical Network Steering Committees.
While talking about the proposed priorities for the next financial year, it was clear that health consumers are ready for some major changes in health. The recent Queensland Clinical Senate meeting also demonstrated a parallel appetite for change by clinicians in the health system too.
Consumers identified major reforms to long-held traditions and ways of addressing health care including:
- the way patients are categorized for care (not just triaged by clinical need/clinically appropriate wait times, but in the context of complexities in their lives)
- re-imagining HHS borders to better reflect referral pathways that work for consumers
- the way healthcare is funded (outcomes, rather than volume)
- collaborating with consumers to design new models of care, service improvements and funding models as well as when providing them with individual care
- actively addressing the social and cultural determinants of health and the systems barriers that keep some people in a cycle of poverty and ill-health.
Above all, consumers want fair, equitable and maximum access to health care services for every Queenslander.
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5 Jun 2020
5 June 2020
Rapid expansion of telehealth and virtual care has emerged as one of the positive outcomes from COVID-19. Consumers shared key insights including:
- Everybody is doing it differently. Let’s make it simpler, easier and less complicated for all consumers and health care providers to use telehealth.
- Let’s ensure there is public awareness and system-wide acknowledgment of when and where telehealth is inappropriate.
- Ensure consumers have choice in the way their healthcare is delivered e.g. face-to-face or by telehealth.
- Virtual care should be based on clear criteria, consumer choice and be clinically appropriate.
- Now is clearly the time to harness the potential of telehealth and address the gaps and inequities of this model of health service delivery
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28 May 2020
While talking about funding priorities for the next financial year, it was clear that health consumers have an appetite for major changes in health. Consumers have suggested major reforms to long-held ways of providing health care. Identified reforms are:
- to the way patients are categorized for care
- re-imagining HHS borders
- funding healthcare
- collaborating with consumers to design new models of care, service improvements and
- funding models to actively address the social and cultural determinants of health and the systems barriers that keep some people in a cycle of poverty and ill-health.
Read the Issues Paper >
22 May 2020
At the Queensland Clinical Senate meeting on Monday, clinicians and consumers from across the state examined the innovations and improved models of care which have come out of the response to COVID-19, and made recommendations about what should be kept and developed beyond this pandemic.
As the public health system starts to look forward, Health Consumers Queensland has also been continuing to talk with consumers this week about who is being left behind.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted inequalities, inequities and discrimination in the healthcare system and our daily lives so we asked our COVID-19 Community of Interest Group, members of the Health Consumers Collaborative of Queensland and our own Consumer Advisory Group (CAG) as well as HHS CAG Leaders and Engagement Advisers:
- Who is being left behind?
- Why are they being left behind?
- What can the system do and what can consumers do to address some of these issues?
Whilst many Queenslanders are now starting to enjoy life with some recent relaxations to restrictions, consumers and advisers identified over 25 groups of people whose health and/or social circumstances mean they are still unable to leave their homes or are particularly vulnerable to infection and the effects of prolonged isolation.
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19 May 2020
19 May
Consumers identified health consumers and carers at risk of being left behind during COVID-19. This helped form their views on who should be included in priority Queensland populations and what healthcare should look like for them. Consumers also saw the value of focusing on the commonalities between these groups as their challenges may be similar e.g. accessing healthcare, navigating between health care services and health literacy.
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