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Australian Healthcare & Hospitals Association, Unit 8, 2 Phipps Close, Canberra (2025)

16/09/2025

Institutional racism within Australian hospitals is a critical public health issue that profoundly impacts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This racism is not merely a collection of isolated incidents; it's a systemic problem that affects patients at both an individual and societal level.

While tools exist to assess institutional racism, they are not consistently applied, which limits accountability and progress.

The latest Deeble Institute for Health Policy Research Issues Brief, Measuring what really matters for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples – racism and cultural safety in healthcare calls for a fundamental change in approach which moves away from fragmented, superficial measures toward a unified, data-driven, and Indigenous-led strategy

To achieve this, the Brief recommends to:

• Establish a national framework for cultural safety and anti-racism
• Mandate and standardise cultural safety and anti-racism education and training
• Implement independent and transparent complaints and reporting mechanisms
• Strengthen data collection and measurement of racism and cultural safety
• Enhance meaningful community engagement and shared decision-making

2025 Jeff Cheverton Scholar Dr Elissa Elvidge is supported by Brisbane North and North Western Melbourne PHNs.

Read the Brief: https://ahha.asn.au/resource/measuring-what-really-matters-racism-and-cultural-safety-in-healthcare/
Read the Media Release: https://ahha.asn.au/measuring-what-really-matters-racism-and-cultural-safety-in-healthcare/

05/09/2025

In 2024, the National Women’s Health Advisory Council released findings from its Survey, which gathered responses from 3,000 Australian women, caregivers, and health professionals (including nurses). The results revealed that two-thirds of women reported experiencing gender bias in healthcare, and almost 80% of caregivers observed similar patterns among those they support.

Earlier this year, a Monash University report reinforced these concerns, demonstrating that gender inequities persist across the health system, not only in clinical practice and workplace culture, but also in leadership and decision-making. A key recommendation was to increase the participation of women and gender-diverse people in guideline development panels to strengthen inclusivity and representation.

Gender bias is also evident in health and medical research. A policy brief by the Australian Women’s Health Alliance highlighted the historic underrepresentation of women in research, noting that data collected primarily from male participants has often been generalised to women. These practices have produced gendered data gaps that have weakened the evidence base needed to address health disparities across diverse population groups.

While progress is being made, such as increased collection of gender-disaggregated and intersectional data in areas like mental health, substance use, and chronic disease, priority populations of women remain underrepresented. Closing these gaps is critical for accurate needs assessments, monitoring change, and achieving equity in health outcomes.

Systematic action is required to embed a more inclusive gender lens throughout the research process, from study design and data collection through to analysis, reporting, and translation into policy. This should be further supported by the development of national indicators that capture the health experiences of diverse groups, greater investment in under-researched areas, and the adoption of inclusive data standards across government strategies and policies.

Ultimately, strengthening gender-responsive evidence is not only a research priority but a policy imperative. Building a more robust evidence base, grounded in equity, is essential for shaping policies, improving practice, and implementing programs that deliver more equitable health outcomes for women.

Ending Gender Bias - What is it? And how can we end it?
https://www.apna.asn.au/hub/primary-times-articles/primary-times-summer-2024-5/gender-biased-health-care
New report reveals depth of s*x and gender bias in Australia’s ‘gold standard’ healthcare guidelines
https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/new-report-reveals-depth-of-s*x-and-gender-bias-in-australias-gold-standard-healthcare-guidelines
Policy brief: Strengthening Gender Equity Through Research and Evidence
https://australianwomenshealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Policy-Brief_research-and-evidence_Final.pdf

04/09/2025

Value-Based Healthcare (VBHC) is essential for the long-term sustainability of healthcare. Yet, despite its promise, health systems worldwide continue to face challenges embedding it into practice.

Learning Health Systems (LHS) have emerged as a powerful way to capture, analyse, and translate knowledge into improved care delivery. While LHSs can help deliver and embed VBHC, structural barriers within VBHC make this transition complex. Moving forward requires new competencies, investment in infrastructure, and adoption of innovative practices.

The Deeble Institute’s latest Perspectives Brief highlights how Health Research and Education Precincts (HREPs) can provide the platform to systematically embed LHS principles and advance the VBHC agenda at scale.

The Brief outlines four key recommendations to unlock the potential of HREPs:

- Develop a nationally consistent definition and a shared language
- Create a national strategic framework to ensure HREPs are recognised as core infrastructure for research translation, workforce development, and system innovation.
- Establish national coordination and governance to help move HREPs from fragmented initiatives to a nationally integrated system.
- Secure sustained financial investment, prioritising initiatives aligned with VBHC, outcomes focused principles.

By aligning VBHC through HREPs we can accelerate transformation and strengthen the foundations of a sustainable, learning-driven health system.

Read the Perspectives Brief: https://ahha.asn.au/resource/the-role-of-health-research-and-education-precincts-in-establishing-local-learning-health-systems-and-achieving-value-based-healthcare/
Read the Media Release: https://ahha.asn.au/health-precincts-key-to-unlocking-potential-of-value-based-health-care/

28/08/2025

Earlier this week, AHHA Ltd Executive Director, Knowledge Translation Adj A/Prof Rebecca Haddock joined 55 other member organisations passionate about driving improvements in rural health at the National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA)’s roundtable launching their report, The Forgotten Health Spend: A Report on the Expenditure Deficit in Rural Australia.

The report details the systemic inequity that faces Australians living in the bush - with rural and remote communities receiving $8.35 billion less in health funding each year (equivalent to $1,090 less per person) compared with metropolitan areas. Critically, the report highlights that while Governments, at both the Federal and the State and Territory level, acknowledge and have put in place measures to address ongoing disparity in rural health expenditure, these efforts continue to tinker at the edges of reform – with current approaches fundamentally not fit for purpose in rural areas.

Chapter 7 of the NRHA report sets out a series of stakeholder-identified opportunities for reform, of which reflect the reality of service delivery in thin and non-existent markets. These include:

• Defining levels of reasonable access to care and regional planning approaches to determine how these levels can be met at a regional level
• Coordinated and flexible funding to support services across defined regions
• Implementing localised multidisciplinary models of service delivery across sectors.

As the authors note, ‘It was telling how consistent the suggested approaches were across stakeholders, with most suggesting similar solutions’ – a sentiment we at the AHHA share, reflecting the opportunities for reform identified in the Deeble Perspectives Brief: Policy alignment for place-based solutions for better health outcomes in rural and remote communities.

The Brief underscores the need to shift from the current fragmented, input-focused system to coordinated, outcome-based approaches to drive improvements in rural health, highlighting the opportunity available in:

• Adopting the Measuring What Matters wellbeing framework, as a tool for strengthening outcomes measurement
• Pooled funding, allocated through a relational commissioning approach, to reduce administrative burden and enable local flexibility in decision-making
• Aligning workforce policy and funding levers across health, aged care and disability sectors, to support local workforce planning

Shared between both papers is the recognition that strong and transparent leadership is needed to align, integrate and enable government policies and programs to deliver community-led, place-based solutions, so that every Australian, no matter where they live, can access a fair and sustainable health system.

Read the NRHA Report
https://ow.ly/xRgz50WNiaZ
Read the Deeble Brief
https://ow.ly/My9R50WNib0

26/08/2025

In Australia, accessibility to healthcare services remains an ongoing problem, with disparities evident across geographic and socio-economic lines. The Mirror, Mirror 2024 report illustrates this paradox: while ranking Australia as the world’s leading health system overall, it identified weaknesses in two critical performance indicators. Compared with 9 other OECD countries, Australia placed ninth for access to care (with US ranking last), and fifth for care processes, highlighting the gaps between system performance and the lived experiences of patients.

These concerns are further reflected in last week’s ABC article, which reported that patients and carers in New South Wales described the state’s public mental health system as ‘broken’. Hospitals across NSW face mounting pressures, which according to ABC Four Corners Investigation is driven by a mixture of workforce shortages (resignation of 180 public psychiatrists), poor continuity of care and inadequate staff training. While these systemic pressures are statewide, the burden is often greater in regional and rural areas, where adverse health outcomes are more pronounced than those in metropolitan centres.

Rural Australians face higher levels of disease and poorer health outcomes, in part due to limited access to timely and appropriate services. Contributing factors include difficulties in attracting and retaining health professionals, limited specialist expertise linked to fewer training opportunities, and the compounding effects of socio-economic disadvantage such as higher unemployment, lower incomes, and poorer housing conditions.

Addressing these entrenched inequities requires structural and systemic reform, supported by strong national leadership to shift from fragmented, input- focused systems to coordinated, outcome-driven approaches. The Deeble Perspectives Brief Policy alignment for place-based solutions for better health outcomes in rural and remote communities, identifies four priority areas for reform:

• Informing local investment and integration
• Prioritising care over administration
• Enabling a flexible, sustainable workforce
• Achieving aligned purpose across systems

While these reforms are framed around rural and remote health, the issues are far-reaching and demand broader, system-wide change if Australia is to achieve equitable health outcomes for all citizens, regardless of where they live.

Mental health patient calls for improved regional services to reduce trauma
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-13/calls-for-improved-nsw-mental-health-services/105500402
Policy alignment for place-based solutions for better health outcomes in rural and remote communities
https://ahha.asn.au/resource/policy-alignment-for-place-based-solutions-for-better-health-outcomes-in-rural-and-remote-communities/
Mirror, mirror 2024: A Portrait of the Failing U.S. Health System
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/sites/default/files/2024-09/Blumenthal_mirror_mirror_2024_final_v2.pdf

26/08/2025

AHHA is proud to be a Community Partner for Australian Healthcare Week 2026, join us there and find out more: https://app.ingo.me/q/a3lvo

Together, we’re strengthening networks, elevating important conversations, and championing better care outcomes across Australia.

📍ICC Sydney | 11–12 March 2026
🌐 www.australianhealthcareweek.com

20/08/2025

In the August edition of The Health Advocate, AHHA Policy Officer Emma Walsh, examines the growing pressures on Australia’s health system as our population ages, and the critical role of primary care in delivering timely, compassionate palliative care.

With up to 27% of Australians projected to be aged 65+ by 2071, the demand for chronic and end-of-life care is rising. Yet most people receive palliative care just 15 days before death.

This article, part of the ELDAC feature, highlights the need for integrated, person-centred care and the importance of supporting primary care providers with the tools and resources they need to lead this change.

📖 Read the full article: https://online.fliphtml5.com/qfuil/roaf/ =15

12/08/2025

Over the past two centuries, vaccines have served as a critical public health intervention, providing a strong line of defence against infectious diseases in humans, animals, and even plants. Through widespread immunisation, vaccines have saved hundreds of millions of lives across the globe.

Last week on 8th August, US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the cancellation of $500 million in federal funding for mRNA vaccine research. The decision was based on unsubstantiated claims that mRNA vaccines encourage viral mutations and may prolong pandemics.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines represent a novel and effective platform in modern vaccinology. Unlike traditional vaccines, mRNA vaccines work by providing cells with a set of instructions that teaches the body how to produce a harmless piece of a virus (such as the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus), thereby stimulating the immune system to recognise and fight future infections without exposure to the actual pathogen.

The impact of this vaccine was clearly demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 2020 and 2024, they are estimated to have prevented around 2.5 million deaths and saved 15 million life-years worldwide. They also offer additional advantages which include, high efficacy against severe disease, rapid development timelines, and adaptability to emerging variants and new pathogens.

Ongoing research continues to expand the potential applications of this platform. For example, scientists at Monash University have developed an innovative method for enhancing mRNA delivery using lipid nanoparticles coated with antibodies. This approach improves targeting precision, efficacy, and illustrates how mRNA research could also support future treatments for a wide range of diseases.

Secretary Kennedy’s rationale for redirecting funding, based on safety concerns and mutation risks, does not align with current scientific evidence. In fact, continued investment in this technology is crucial for tackling future health threats and creating new medical treatments.

Reducing funding, risks slowing innovation and undermining global health preparedness. Continued support for independent, evidence-based research is essential to safeguarding public health and improving health outcomes worldwide.

RFK Jr is wrong about mRNA vaccines – a scientist explains how they make COVID less deadly
https://theconversation.com/rfk-jr-is-wrong-about-mrna-vaccines-a-scientist-explains-how-they-make-covid-less-deadly-262776
Australian scientists develop method to optimise delivery of mRNA to cells: new study
https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/australian-scientists-develop-method-to-optimise-delivery-of-mrna-to-cells-new-study

07/08/2025

📢 New Issue Alert!
The latest edition of Australian Health Review (Vol. 49, Issue 4) is out now!✨

This issue explores topics such as preparing healthcare organisations for AI, whether laws regulating embryo research should be reformed, and experiences working in and teaching palliative care.

Explore the issue here: https://www.publish.csiro.au/ah/issue/12580

07/08/2025

📣 The August 2025 issue of The Health Advocate is now live!

This edition focuses on aged care, from policy reform to grassroots innovation, exploring how we can build a system that delivers care with dignity, equity, and compassion.

🔍 Featured highlights include:

- The ELDAC series on the essential role of palliative care and the value of digital knowledge platforms.
- Golden Angels: A volunteer-led initiative transforming dementia care and patient experience.
- A call to action on the Senior Dental Benefits Scheme.

In his CEO update, The Age for Change, AHHA CEO Tony Farley reflects on the shared needs of older Australians and the importance of integrated, person-centred care, calling for collaboration across sectors to ensure aged care reform is not only sustainable but deeply human.

📖 Read the full issue here: https://online.fliphtml5.com/qfuil/roaf/ =1

05/08/2025

On 31 July 2025, the Victorian Government introduced the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment Bill 2025 to Parliament. Aimed at reducing medicine-related harm in residential aged care settings, the Bill mandates that from 1 July 2026, only registered and enrolled nurses or other authorised health professionals, including pharmacists and general practitioners, will be permitted to administer specific medicines and drugs of dependence to aged care residents.

This legislative reform responds to key findings of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, which identified unsafe medicine practices as a serious concern. While this is a vital step towards enhancing clinical safety, improving the overall health and wellbeing of aged care residents also requires addressing broader, systemic challenges.

One such challenge is social isolation and loneliness, which significantly impacts mental and physical health of the ageing population. According to the AIHW, 16% of Australians over 65 experience loneliness, and 11% are socially isolated. This is partly due to limited access to allied health and lifestyle services in residential aged care. As outlined in Deeble Issues Brief No. 54 - Restorative and wellbeing care in Australian residential aged care facilities, many facilities fall short of delivering the recommended levels of allied health care necessary for restorative and wellbeing support.

The Brief recommends establishing minimum quantifiable allied health service requirements, including mandates for lifestyle and leisure activities. Even modest increases in social engagement opportunities, such as group activities, exercise sessions, or creative therapies, can make a notable difference in improving residents’ sense of community and purpose.

Embedding reform that is truly person-centred and responsive requires genuine partnership with older people and their carers. Deeble Perspectives Brief No. 39, Translating Policy into Practice by Engaging Older Persons and Their Carers as Co-Researchers, advocates for co-research models that actively involve those with lived experience in shaping solutions. This inclusive approach is essential to translating Royal Commission recommendations into sustainable policy and practice.

The upcoming Aged Care Act marks a pivotal opportunity for transformative system reform, aiming to ensure that all Australians, whether providing or receiving care, are treated with dignity, respect, and are supported to live with meaningful quality of life.

Stay tuned for the August edition of The Health Advocate, which will explore a range of aged care-related topics.

Restorative and wellbeing care in Australian residential aged care facilities https://ahha.asn.au/resource/restorative-and-wellbeing-care-in-australian-residential-aged-care-facilities/

Translating policy into practice by engaging older persons and their carers as co-researchers
https://ahha.asn.au/resource/translating-policy-into-practice-by-engaging-older-persons-and-their-carers-as-co-researchers/

04/08/2025

As colder temperatures sweep across Australia, the nation is experiencing a sharp increase in winter-related illnesses, including influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and COVID-19. This year’s winter season has had a serious health impact on Australians, placing renewed pressure on Australia’s healthcare system.

Recent data shows there were 32,348 COVID-19 cases in June 2025, narrowing the gap with the 45,634 cases reported in June 2024. This resurgence is largely driven by the emergence of the NB.1.8.1 subvariant. Meanwhile, influenza cases have surged to levels 30% higher than last year, and RSV notifications reached 27,243, surpassing the 26,596 cases recorded during the previous winter.

A key driver of this escalating disease burden is the decline in vaccination coverage across all age groups. National childhood immunisation rates have fallen below critical thresholds, and COVID-19 booster uptake among older Australians remains low. This has contributed to over 200 aged care facilities currently managing active COVID-19 outbreaks.

Vaccine hesitancy, fuelled by misinformation and declining trust in public institutions, continues to challenge public health efforts. Addressing these concerns requires a person-centred, evidence-informed communication approach that promotes transparency, consistency, and community engagement. In 2021, to support government, health, and community stakeholders in rebuilding trust and improving vaccine literacy, the AHHA developed a Vaccination program communication strategy.

Concerns about rare but high-profile cases of vaccine-related adverse events have also contributed to declining uptake. While such occurrences are infrequent, their visibility can shape negative perceptions at scale. Expanding vaccine injury compensation schemes offers a pragmatic policy response, reinforcing public confidence by acknowledging rare risks while also promoting the broader public health benefits of immunisation.

Improving vaccination coverage is essential, not only to safeguard individual and population health, but also to reduce strain on the nation’s healthcare system. Earlier this month, four hospitals in Queensland temporarily paused elective surgeries due to the number of respiratory illnesses overwhelming emergency departments . Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls reported a 16% increase in presentations, noting that of these, 90% of influenza patients were unvaccinated.

A coordinated national effort to improve vaccine uptake is needed to prevent avoidable illness, protect vulnerable populations, and sustain the resilience of Australia’s healthcare system throughout the flu season and beyond.

COVID, flu, RSV: how these common viruses are tracking this winter – and how to protect yourself
https://theconversation.com/covid-flu-rsv-how-these-common-viruses-are-tracking-this-winter-and-how-to-protect-yourself-261383
Hundreds of aged care facilities facing COVID-19 outbreaks amid renewed vaccination calls
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-22/aged-care-covid-rates-2025/105547808
COVID-19 Vaccination Program communication and engagement
https://ahha.asn.au/resource/covid-19-vaccination-program-communication-and-engagement/

Australian Healthcare & Hospitals Association

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