Better health and ageing for all Australians

Primary Health Strategy

Consultation Submission Process

The Discussion Paper 'Towards a National Primary Health Care Strategy' provides information and a series of questions to assist individuals and organisations to structure their input to development of the Strategy through written submission, by the end of Februrary 2009.

In this section:

Consultation Process

The Discussion Paper ‘Towards a National Primary Health Care Strategy’ is a key step in developing Australia’s first ever National Primary Health Care Strategy.

Development of the Strategy is being undertaken by the Department of Health and Ageing with the assistance of an External Reference Group, chaired by Dr Tony Hobbs. It is a critical part of the Government’s health reform agenda and will look at how to deliver better frontline care to families across Australia.

The Discussion Paper is structured around ten proposed key elements of an enhanced primary health care system and canvasses a wide range of important issues. For each element, the Discussion Paper describes the current situation and what this means for consumers and health care practitioners, with a focus on identifying major issues that will need to be addressed in the development of the Strategy.

The Discussion Paper also sets out a series of questions to assist individuals and groups to structure their input and invites comment through written submission, by the end of February 2009.

How to be involved

All interested individuals and organisations are encouraged to contribute their views and ideas on planning for the future delivery of primary health care services in Australia.

Towards a National Primary Health Care Strategy: A Discussion Paper from the Australian Government is now available for Stakeholder consideration. In addition to being available in PDF, the Discussion Paper has also been provided in HTML format to facilitate ease of access. Any enquiries should be directed to the NPHCS Secretariat by email at nphcs@heatlh.gov.au or by phone on (02) 6289 5159.

Submissions are due by Friday 27 February 2009 and should be made by using the Consultation Submission Form (RTF 41 KB) and emailing nphcs@health.gov.au or by post to:
      National Primary Health Care Strategy Secretariat
      MDP 94,
      GPO Box 9848
      CANBERRA ACT 2601

Important: Unless otherwise indicated in the submission, all submissions will be published on the Department of Health and Ageing website. If you wish any information contained in your submission to be treated as confidential, please explicitly and clearly identify that information, and outline the reasons why you consider it to be confidential. Note that general disclaimers in covering emails will not be interpreted as a specific request or taken as sufficient reason for submissions to be treated confidentially. Any submissions which include personal information identifying specific individuals will be de-identified before submissions are published.

In addition, where submissions focus on issues specifically relevant to state and territory governments, this information may be forwarded to the relevant jurisdiction(s).

Note that submissions or comments will generally be subject to freedom of information provisions under the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act 1982.'