Achieving High Performing Health Systems : Putting the social into health care
AUSTRALIAN PRIMARY HEALTHCARE INNOVATION AND REFORM VODCAST SERIES. Highlights from Vodcast 2
A Joint Prestantia Health and AUDIENCED Production, with
– Dr Paresh Dawda, GP Lead and Adviser, Founder Prestantia Health
– Dr Wally Jammal, GP, Hills Family General Practice
– Dr Bogdan Chiva Giurca, Clinical Lead and Global Director, UK National Academy for Social Prescribing
FACILITATOR
Leanne Wells, Associate Consultant, Prestantia Health
Clinicians and consumers know only too well that life circumstances such as poor housing, income and food insecurity can have a negative impact on health outcomes. Conversely, participation in community activities, social connection and access to nature parks and leisure facilities can help maintain health and wellbeing.
More recent phenomena in public health have also focused us on the health and social care connection. Stress factors such as the sudden loss of employment and social interaction, moving to remote work or schooling, and the impacts of sudden, localised COVID-19 ‘lockdowns’ to prevent further outbreaks were triggers of increased psychological distress.
And loneliness is being described as our latest epidemic with chronic loneliness inked to a myriad of health problems and earlier death. A recent report found one in four Australians say they feel persistently lonely, and that loneliness costs $2.7 bn a year in health costs alone.
According to a 2024 Commonwealth Fund Mirror Mirror report, which compares the health performance of several countries, only 13% of Australian primary care providers (or other personnel in the practice) usually screen or assess patients for one or more social need – the third lowest in the OECD.
Primary care – predominantly general practices – is where most people get most of their health care and is a commonly visited health care setting. GPs and others in team have a continuous relationship with their patient and the opportunity to identify factors beyond immediate medical care that can impact on health and wellbeing.
Integrating health and social care is an exciting frontier in healthcare and was described as such by Australia’s Assistant Health Minister at a National Social Prescribing roundtable hosted by the Australian Social Prescribing Research Institute (ASPIRE).
Despite the recognition that primary care is a good place to start, the barriers are real. Practice systems, data systems with the capacity to capture information and make intelligent insights, the lack of flexible funding and the time pressures on practices are among them.
In this Australian Health Journal HIGHLIGHTS release, the panel discuss some of these barriers and the desire to put the social into health care.
The FULL LENGTH FEATURE of this VODCAST can be watched here https://youtu.be/KGjrLcjgFg0
Vodcast 2 was convened December 2024. Read the Prestantia Health Blog Post https://www.prestantiahealth.com/post/putting-the-social-into-health-care
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Confronting picture of growing women’s health crisis in uterine cancers
Uterine cancers have become Australia’s fastest-growing women’s cancer, with incidence doubling over the past 25 years and projected to continue to surge. Without immediate action, more than 44,000 women are expected to be diagnosed by 2035, and 8,900 will lose their lives to the disease.
Released November 2025, Australia’s first State of the Nation: Uterine Cancers in Australia 2025 report by the Australia New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology Group (ANZGOG), reveals a confronting picture of a growing women’s health crisis that has gone largely unseen and one that now requires immediate, coordinated national action.
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Understanding factors of persistent lower back pain in women
Lizzy Quinn is a Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist with 20 years experience focusing on people with spinal pain. Australian Health Journal spoke with Lizzy on the complexities of persistent lower back pain in women.
Lower back pain in women in their 30s, 40s, and 50s is complex to treat due to the combination of physical and emotional factors, and health professionals need to stay updated on best practices and science to provide the best recovery platform for patients. These women typically have busy lives, pressures, and expectations.
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Patient-paramedic trust can help free up emergency departments
Dr. Robbie King is a Senior Advanced Care Paramedic with the Queensland Ambulance Service and a community paramedic. He is also a lecturer at the Australian Catholic University in Brisbane. After studying paramedicine and working as a student paramedic since 2009, he recognised that most patients attended by ambulance services did not require emergency interventions.
