A case for reorienting health systems and investing in primary health care in Australia

Abstract

In recent times, many developing countries have been going through a process of re-orienting health policy and services towards early detection and prevention, rather than solely on the treatment and on-going management, of illness and disease. For example, in the UK, the fundamental philosophy underpinning the approach to funding primary healthcare is analogous to the adage ‘prevention is better than cure’, with the NHS Improvement Plan stating that “If England is to secure world-class standards of health, the enormous human, financial and physical resources available to the NHS need to be focussed on the prevention of disease and not just its treatment”. Within Australia, there are similar shifts in thinking and policy, with the development of the National Preventative Health Taskforce, which has been tasked with developing a National Preventative Health Strategy.