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
-
Budget22 A mixed dose of health outcomes
Australian Health Journal met with a number of industry heads after the budget on their journeys so far in lobbying for change, their achievements, some of the disappointments and their thoughts on the road ahead, with an election round the corner.
-
Developing the next generation of medicines to target and enhance the microbiome
Australian Health Journal spoke to Associate Professor Sam Forster, Research Group Head
Microbiota and Systems Biology, Hudson Institute of Medical Research, Team Leader, Australian Microbiome Culture Collection & Chief Scientific Officer, BiomeBank and Dr Sam Costello, Co-Founder and CEO of BiomeBank about the microbiome, partnering and some of the breakthroughs in recent years. -
Sovereign capability uplifted
Skilled labour, in particular skilled in the manufacture of MTP products, namely competency in Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), was identified as one of the key priorities, according to Jarrod Belcher, Director of the REDI Program at MTPConnect. Through a competitive process, MTPConnect selected additional industry training providers to deliver new programs addressing key skills gaps in the sector workforce.
Launched in September 2022, one of these programs is GMP Uplift developed by the Centre for Biopharmaceutical Excellence (CBE). CBE bring experience across large and small Biologics, Pharmaceuticals and Regenerative Medicine companies, both in consulting and GMP related enterprise training. CBE staff also have extensive experience in GMP operations, compliance, auditing and QMS design, a wide industry network for guest lecturers and readily available case studies.
