In the lead up to the Australian Federal Budget in May 2023, Australian Health Journal reached out to peak health industry bodies to hear about their priorities, either noted in pre-budget submissions lodged with Federal Government in January 2023 or in recent forums such as the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce.
Others have stated their priorities directly with Federal Government. Through these interviews, AHJ gives a final opportunity to communicate to all health stakeholders, the funding needs for a range of priorities. These range from new models of care to pilots and wholesale, system improvements to building more sustainable workforces to help grow certain sectors of the health system
The Chief Executive Officer of Osteopathy Australia, Antony Nicholas spoke with Australian Health Journal about:
- Involvement in the Strengthening Medicare Task Force
- The unique skills osteopaths have that can address the chronic disease burden
- Current workforce issues around osteopaths and if enough are coming through via student placements
- How uploading data to My Health Record by osteopaths could assist team-based care of patients
- How can the value of osteopaths in Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACFs) could be better understood and available to residents
- The recommendations around aged care access to allied health services, including osteopathy
- The recommendations around consumer access to osteopaths and GP referrals
- Other osteopathy recommendations in the upcoming Federal Budget
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Maximising benefits, minimising harms in population health screening
Population screening is an important contributor to advancing health outcomes through the early detection of and successful intervention for chronic disease. The evolution of science, technology and evidence relating to diseases which are or may be amenable to a population screening approach deserve broad discussion and the sharing of expertise and evidence. They also warrant close scrutiny in context of health policy and health resource allocation considerations.
In March, Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) convened Screening Conference Conference 2025 with the theme of ‘Population Screening for Chronic Disease – Maximising Benefits, Minimising Harms’.
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Supporting women in arthroplasty, surgery & orthopaedic oncology
Associate Professor Claudia Di Bella is an academic orthopaedic surgeon based in Melbourne, specialising in orthopaedic oncology and complex joint reconstruction. Originally trained at the world-renowned Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute (Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli) in Bologna, Italy, she moved to Australia in 2010 and was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2013.
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Implementing improvements in referral management and demand
Nalani Cox joined Gold Coast Health in 2019 as a Nurse Manager focused on improving referral management processes within the outpatient environment through the implementation of the Clinical Prioritisation Criteria. This work became a focus point for the organisation in 2020 when Nalani led an organisational wide change project introducing Smart Referrals, Refer Your Patient website and HealthPathways which has culminated in her position as the ADON of the Referral Strategy and Performance Department.
