Nursing Australian Healthcare

Question: Describe about the Nursing for Australian Healthcare. Answer: Australian Healthcare System The healthcare system in Australia is world class both in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. According to World Health Organization, Australia is known to rank among the best-performing groups in the world consistently for health expenditure and healthy life expectancy per person (Commonwealthfund.org 2016). The health status of the Australian population is generally good with 81.40 years as the average life expectancy at birth (Aihw.gov.au 2016). This statistics is one of the best and highest worldwide. However, the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islanders are the groups who are known to have poor health status or else the disease pattern is almost similar to the other developed countries of the world. This essay will discuss the various perspectives of the Australian healthcare system that will include its historical evolution, its strength and weakness and the implemented health policies and priorities. The history of healthcare in Australia dates back to the colonial era when the government used to offer subsidized hospitals for catering the healthcare needs of the poor which were later transformed into charitable institutions in the nineteenth century where doctors used to provide care based on honorariums (Tschealthisorsm.global2.vic.edu.au 2016). Private hospitals emerged which were run by private entrepreneurs and religious organizations for catering the affluent population and the doctors provided a community-based medical care based on fee for service. In 1901, the constitution endowed the states with the power for maintaining the healthcare of the community and the Federal government was responsible for preventing the entry of diseases in the country. In 1918, establishment of the Commonwealth Department of Health took place for which the states agreed and this was followed by the establishment of the Federal Health Council in the year 1926 for providing expert professional advice (Abriefhistory.org 2016). This was further expanded to become the National Health and Medical Research Council in the year 1937. It was until the middle of the 20th century that the individual citizens of the country had to pay from their own expenses for availing the healthcare services. From the later part of the 19th century to the middle of 1940s decade, the friendly society movement came to the Act and provided the members with a number of benefits for healthcare which was later reformed to a tax-funded and universal health insurance system under the Labor governments Hawke and Keating (Willis, Reynolds and Keleher 2016). The economic rationalism started from 1995 with the National Competition Policy that led to the shaping of the Australian healthcare system of the present time. The healthcare system in Australia is complex and consists of many types of providers and services and a wide range of regulatory and funding mechanisms for the health service delivery models. It is funded by both the private and public sectors provide healthcare services by funding it and involving all the levels of the Australian government. At the Federal level, the Commonwealth assumes a leadership role in financing and health policy making because of its financial authorities and constitutional mandate. At the State level, two territory and six state governments provide and find the healthcare services. The Local Government includes about 700 shire or municipal councils that vary according to the population size, geography and revenue capacity (Britt et al. 2013). The private sectors are hugely responsible for providing health services and a lesser extent in funding them. The primary players in the private sector are general physicians, private hospitals, diagnostic services and private health insurance (Heti.nsw.gov.au 2016). The healthcare system of the country is a multi-faceted model that consists of private and public providers, participants, settings and the supporting mechanisms for care delivery. The services provided are palliative care and rehabilitation, hospital-based treatment, emergency healthcare and primary healthcare facilities. The health providers include medical practitioners, allied health professionals, nurses, clinics, hospitals and non-government and government agencies. The strength of the Australian healthcare system is Medicare that entitles all the Australians to avail pharmaceutical and medical benefits provided by it. It provides a world class health system that guarantees affordable and quality healthcare services for all the citizens. The advantages that the Australian healthcare system derives out of Medicare is free treatment for patients in the public hospitals, discount in the doctor visits that are out of the hospital and is known as Medicare rebate and provision of affordable medicines through a scheme known as PBS (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme) (Health.gov.au 2016). The Medicare has been further strengthened by the introduction of Safety Net that protects the Australians from the variable medical costs, protection from bulk billing generated by the general physicians with extra money, increasing the nurses in the doctor surgeries and medical workforce and laying down more convenient ways for claiming of the rebate from Medicare. PBS assures the citizens of the country to avail lifesaving and necessary medications at an affordable price and covers about 75% of the prescription medicines that are subsidized. Although the Australian healthcare system has been blessed with the strength of being a world class provider of healthcare services, there are several weaknesses in the delivery of healthcare and funding of its services. With the changes in the disease patterns and demography, there is a requirement for increasing the preventive initiatives as they do not reach out effectively for the ones who need them the most. Services intended for the chronically ill are directed only at the acute care centers. The system has often failed to subsidize the new therapeutic and diagnostic devices and therefore, not all of the Australians are able to avail them. The extent of medical errors in Australia is very high and costs about $2 billion yearly of which, about 50% are preventable (Renzaho et al. 2013). The health services are increasingly becoming lesser equitable and this has significantly increased the patient's costs that are out of the pocket by over 50% as the surcharge of the private healt h insurance companies is unfair for the remote dwellers. There have been constraints on the allocation of resources that includes medications and healthcare technologies. This can be attributed to the fact that pharmaco-economic data are not utilized regularly for the purpose of the process of decision making. As a result, the resources are not adequately distributed throughout the needs of the rural and metropolitan Australia at the micro and macro levels. Staff shortage and government cutbacks are also responsible for the constraints in the allocation of resources in the rural and remote parts of the country. Australia is known to have one of the most comprehensive, accessible and affordable healthcare systems in the world due to its broad policies of financing and leadership in the matters of healthcare services. These services are focused on the key areas of national information management, research and public health. The territories and states are responsible largely for the delivery of health services in the public sector with the regulation of the health workers in the private and public sectors. The health policy of the Australian government includes the health priority areas that include the conditions and diseases that have been selected for focused attention as they are significantly responsible for increasing the burden of injury and illness in the community (Aph.gov.au 2016). Some of the health priority areas are asthma, mental health, dementia, obesity, cancer control and cardiovascular health. By targeting these health conditions, collaborative action can be taken for achievi ng cost-effective and significant advances for improving the health status of the citizens of Australia. The adopted health policy will provide a framework that is overarching the national direction for improvement of the prevention of chronic diseases among the Australians. The Australian healthcare system has framed a set of principles for social inclusion of the aged population as a part of the residential aged care program that will provide them with the opportunity for staying connected with their local community, work, friends and family. They are also provided with a range of services and benefits that are in accordance with the cultural and social backgrounds. Several complementary and primary approaches have been devised by the government as quality improvement initiatives for promoting the social life of the residential aged population. The Australian healthcare system interprets the long term political and social-economic changes that influence residential aged care for better assessing the directions and recognizing the options for aged care (Adebayo, Durey and Slack?Smith 2016). While the programs and politics are understandably preoccupied, major improvements in quality have been done by the diagnosis of the causes underlying the difficulti es in the existing system and provide a feasible vision for the future directions. The government of the country has provided economic improvement for the residential aged population of the country that includes increasing wealth and rising incomes that have considerably reduced the disability rates (Agedcare.health.gov.au 2016). With these policies, there has been quality improvement as the future residential aged population is predicted to have higher income and wealthier compared to the present aged population. There are four standards that have been set by the Australian healthcare system that includes organizational, staffing and management system development, personal and health care, lifestyle of the care recipient and safe systems and physical environment. These standards have been intended for enhancing the improvement of quality for the residential aged care facilities from the aspects of service delivery. From the discussion above, it can be concluded that the world class healthcare system of Australia has traveled a long way since the colonial era to achieve its present status of best performing groups in the world. The present structure of healthcare service delivery is a multi-faceted model with its strengths and weaknesses due to constraints on the allocation of resources. The health policies and priorities are framed by the national and the state governments for reducing the burden of injury and illness that also includes the residential aged care facilities and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders of Australia for quality improvement of healthcare services . References Abriefhistory.org. (2016).A Brief History. [online] Available at: https://abriefhistory.org/ [Accessed 25 Oct. 2016]. Adebayo, B., Durey, A. and Slack?Smith, L.M., 2016. Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) carers' perceptions of oral care in residential aged care settings in Perth, Western Australia.Gerodontology. Agedcare.health.gov.au. (2016).Aged care reform | Ageing and Aged Care. [online] Available at: https://agedcare.health.gov.au/aged-care-reform [Accessed 25 Oct. 2016]. Aihw.gov.au. (2016).Australia's health system (AIHW). [online] Available at: https://www.aihw.gov.au/australias-health/2014/health-system/ [Accessed 25 Oct. 2016]. Aph.gov.au. 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