Past Events

The following events were held in 2008:

• The Hospital Admissions Merry-Go-Round: How to Get Off- 27 August
• Forum theme: Are internal markets good for your health?- 25 August
• Indigenous health: Closing the gap for metropolitan communities
• Re-finding the plot: How to regain direction in mental health policy for Australia
• Menzies Centre for Health Policy: Public Health Policy Oration
• New Policy Buzz Words: Prevention and Primary Care
• Health Conundrums: Exploring the policy and legal framework behind Australia's health and ageing system
• Where is Australian PHC going, and where should it go? Does PHC mean 'Powerless to hear the community?'
• Reality Bites: Translating Election Coomittments into Health Policies and Programs
• Oxford Health Alliance Summit

On 25 August, Professor Jon Wyn Owen delivered a seminar on internal markets:

Since political devolution replaced administrative devolution in the UK the NHS in each of the home countries have diverged.England adopted markets and competition; Scotland a professional approach; northern Ireland managerial and Wales localism.

In June 2007 the Coalition - Plaid Cymru (Welsh Nationalist Party) and Labour published 'One Wales:a progressive agenda for the Government of Wales' and committed the Welsh Assembly Government to re-instate democratic engagement at the heart of the Welsh Health Service and to work purposefully to end the internal market in order to improve the services for patients and in order to make co-operation rather than competition the bedrock of public service delivery in Wales. Further that a re-invigorated public service ethos of partnership will be encouraged.

The lecture will explore the features of the Welsh Health Battleground - policy approaches for the 3rd Welsh Assembly term and consultation on reforming the NHS in Wales and the end of the internal market.

John Wyn Owen CB currently holds the post of Chairman of University of Wales Institute, Cardiff. Until his retirement he held the post of Secretary of the Nuffield Trust from 1st March 1997 to June 2005 having previously been Director-General of NSW Health in Australia and Chairman of the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council and, until 1994, Director of NHS Wales.

Prof. Wyn Owen is an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health; Honorary Member of the Royal College of Physicians; Companion of the Institute of Health Care Management and Chartered Management Institute; Fellow of the University of Wales Colleges, of the Australian College of Health Service Executives, the Royal Society of Medicine, the Royal Geographical Society and of the Royal Society of Arts; an Honorary Doctor of the University of Glamorgan and an Honorary Doctor of Science of City University London. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, a non executive director of the Madariaga Foundation of the College of Europe, Trustee of the National Heart Forumand Non-Executive Director UK Health Protection Agency.

Previously a member of WHO Technical Committee on Globalisation, Trade and Health, Member of the International Board of US Academy Health, Member of the Board of the International Society for Quality in Health Care, Member of the European Commission Expert Group on Foundations and R&D, Member of the Board European foundation Centre and Chairman of the International Committee and its initiative Europe in the World and Chairman of Young @ Heart. Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB), Queen's Birthday Honours in 1994.

On 27 August, The Menzies Centre for Health Policy, in conjunction with The Australian Health Policy Institute presented "The Hospital Admissions Merry-go-Round: How to Get Off".

The current focus on health reform looks to better integrate and coordinate care across all aspects of the health sector, particularly between primary care and hospital services to reduce avoidable hospitalizations, readmissions to hospital and non-urgent accident and emergency presentations.

There is a considerable portfolio of Australian work in this area, with information about health outcomes and health care costs and savings. However what is striking is how much government money has been spent on short-term initiatives that have not been effectively used by policy makers to inform policy development.

• Dr Julie Redfern, (NICS-Heart Foundation Fellow Research Fellow, ANZAC Research Institute, Concord Repatriation General Hospital) spoke about her work in cardiac rehabilitation.
  To view Dr Redfern's presentation slides, please click here.
• Professor Steve Bird, (School of Medical Sciences, RMIT University), talked about his work to keep chronically ill older patients out of hospital.
  To view Professor Bird's presentation slides, please click here.
• Professor Katherine McGrath, (Group Manager Corporate and Medical Affairs, Medibank Private), will talk about private sector initiatives in this area.
  To view Professor McGrath's presentation slides, please click here.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has committed to ‘closing the gap’ on Indigenous health and disadvantage, but to date the focus has been primarily on the remote communities of the Northern Territory.

The majority of Indigenous people live in heavily settled areas, where they form a small minority of the total population. Their disadvantage is just as great and their health care needs are just as serious as those in remote communities. ‘Closing the gap’ requires that we attend to the needs of all Indigenous people. These issues (and how to tackle them) were addressed by:

• Mr Anthony Dillon, Lecturer in Indigenous Studies, University of Sydney
  To view Mr Dillon's slides, please click here
  
  Ms Lesley Podesta, First Assistant Secretary, Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, Department of Health & Ageing
  
  Ms Dea Delaney Thiele, CEO, National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation
  To view Ms Thiele's slides, please click here
  
  Moderated by Dr Lesley Russell, Menzies Foundation Fellow
  To view Dr Russell's slides, please click here

On Tuesday, 22 July, The Menzies Centre for Health Policy in conjunction with The Brain and Mind Research Institute hosted a seminar which examined, discussed the realities of mental health policy in Australia. This event was chaired by Menzies Foundation Fellow Dr Lesley Russell,

Panel experts discussed current mental health policy (including an analysis of successes and failures which have led us to our current position), provided an overview of what is now needed in mental health policy, and presented a critical examination of the issues of equity and social justice in this area.

A full recording of the evening can be found here.

To view Dr Lesley Russell's slides, please click here.

To view Professor Ian Hickie's slides, please click here.

To view Mr John Mendoza's slides, please click here.

To view Professor Leeder's slides, please click here.

Topic:
Health Costs and Policy in an Ageing Australia

Mr Garry Banks from the Productivity Commission will chair the Oration.

Gary Banks has been Chairman of the Productivity Commission since its inception in 1998. In addition to his role as Chief Executive he has personally headed national inquiries on major policy and regulatory topics – including Private Health Insurance, National Competition Policy and the Economic Implications of an Ageing Australia. Gary chaired the 2006 Taskforce on Reducing Regulatory Burdens on Business and was a member of the West Review of higher education in 1997. He chairs the inter-governmental Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision, and was the initial convenor for its report Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage.

On 28 May 2008, The Menzies Centre for Health Policy
In conjunction with The Australian Health Policy Institute
hosted the second seminar in 2008 examining the health challenges facing the new government. Professor Stephen Leeder, Professor Mark Harris & Professor George Rubin all delivered presentations, and the seminar was moderated by Dr Lesley Russell.

This event addressed three main themes in regards to prevention and primary care:

Semantic issues: What is prevention? What is primary care? How do these two go together? (Stephen Leeder) To view a copy of Professor Leeder's presentation, please click here.

Professor Leeder's audio version of the presentation is below:
Part One
Part Two

Current situation: What is being done now to address prevention in the primary care setting? How well is this being done? (Mark Harris) To view a copy of Professor Harris's presentation, please click here.

Future directions: What should be done in the future? How well do election commitments in prevention and primary care match the need and the evidence? (George Rubin) To view a copy of Professor Rubin's presentation, please click here.

The Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Minter Ellison hosted the first session of a new national series, Health Conundrums: Exploring the policy and legal framework behind Australia's health and ageing system on 6 May 2008. This session examined:

"Regulation of - Therapeutic Goods and Nanotechnology"

The guest speaker of the evening was Senator Jan McLucas - Federal Parliamentary Secretary, Department of Health and Ageing.

Senator McLucas was appointed Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing in the newly elected Rudd Labor Government on 4 December 2007. Prior to her appointment as Shadow Minister for Ageing, Disabilities and Carers in November 2004, she chaired the Community Affairs References Committee, conducting the inquiries into Poverty, Children in Institutional Care, and Aged Care. She also chaired the Senate Select Committee of Inquiry into Medicare.

This seminar also had commentary by: Lynne Peach - Partner, Minter Ellison.

Lynne joined Minter Ellison as a Partner in 2008. She has a particular emphasis in the pharmaceutical arena, where she is experienced in representing pharmaceutical companies in relation to regulatory issues including the registration of therapeutic goods and devices, the inclusion of goods on the PBS, regulatory matters arising in connection with pharmaceutical patents and associated administrative law challenges.

This seminar was delivered by Professor Gavin Mooney, on 27 March 2008. in the Normal Gregg Lecture Theatre. Gavin is currently the Director of SPHERE and Professor of Health Economics, Curtin University of Technology.

Primary Health Care in Australia has lost its way. Bedevilled by first, fee for service medicine; by second, a lack of awareness of what the community (qua community) wants from it; by third, (largely) powerless Divisions of General Practice; by fourth, inequities (from the patient’s perspective) in fee structures between doctors and other professionals in the community; and by last, a too great emphasis on treatment and not enough on access. There is a need for serious reform of PHC in Australia.

PHC in Australia is currently driven largely by what GPs want and too little by what the community wants. There is much to learn from Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, especially in shifting from primary health care to primary care for health. There is also much to learn from listening to the voices of the informed community.

This talk argued that the need for reform in PHC in Australia must start with the current distribution of power in health services. The balance of resources and the balance of power are too skewed in favour of hospital medicine. A major reason for this is that the health service remains too much a medical institution and too little a social institution. Thirty years on from Alma Ata, there is a need for PHC to embrace much more the social determinants of health.

The Menzies Centre for Health Policy in association with The Australian Health Policy Institute held the first in a series of health policy seminars on 26 March 2008, examining the health challenges facing the new federal Government.

The keynote speaker for the evening was Dr Lesley Russell, Menzies Foundation Fellow, Menzies Centre for Health Policy.

Dr Russell's presentation was followed by a panel discussion that focused on the processes and issues involved in health reform.

The panel consisted of:

• Professor Stephen Leeder, Director, Australian Health Policy Institute and Co-Director, Menzies Centre for Health Policy
• Dr Mary Haines, Health Services Research Director, The Sax Institute
• Dr Mel Miller, Chief Executive Officer, The Royal Australasian College of Physicians
• Paul Grogan: Director, Advocacy, The Cancer Council Australia
• Associate Professor Simon Willcock, Discipline of General Practice, University of Sydney
• Anne-Marie Boxall, Australian Health Policy Institute

Mr Bob Wells, Co-Director, Menzies Centre for Health Policy at the Australian National University, chaired the discussion.

For an Mp3 recording of the seminar, please click here

Click here to view Dr Russell's PowerPoint slides, and here to view the notes from the Seminar.

The Oxford Health Alliance (OxHA) has held four annual summits to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders to confront the global epidemic of chronic disease. The Australian Health Policy Institute hosted the most recent of these on the theme of 'Building a healthy future: chronic disease and our environment'.

The Summit was held at the Intercontinental Sydney 25-27 February 2008.

Please visit OxHA's website for detailed coverage: http://www.oxha.org/meetings/08-summit/sydney-08