1999-2000
Outcome 9: Health Investment
The 1999-2000 Portfolio Budget Statements, informs Senators and Members of Parliament of the proposed allocation of resources to portfolios outcomes and their objectives and targets including the agencies within the Health and Family Services portfolio.
Knowledge, information and training for developing better strategies to improve the health of Australians.
Outcome Summary - The Year Ahead
The National Health and Medical Research Council
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) consolidates within a single national organisation the functions of research funding and the development of advice by bringing together and drawing upon the resources of all components of the health system.
The National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992 sets out the following statutory obligations:
- to raise the standard of individual and public health throughout Australia;
- to foster the development of consistent health standards between the various States and Territories;
- to foster both medical and public health research and training throughout Australia; and
- to foster consideration of ethical issues relating to health.
Research
Through the Research Committee, the NHMRC makes recommendations to the Minister on the awarding of grants based on scientific quality. A rigorous peer review process maintains the highest standards of review and ensures that funded research is of the highest quality.
The Strategic Research Development Committee will consult with key stakeholders on a framework and criteria for determining priorities in health and medical research including injury and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health.
The NHMRC will continue activities under its Memorandum of Understanding with County Investment Management Ltd to boost private sector investment in health and medical research.
Advice
The Health Advisory Committee manages and co-ordinates the development of advice and guidelines on health issues. The committee's responsibilities are broad and include communicable diseases, environmental health, illness prevention and health promotion. Through this Committee, the NHMRC fosters a critical evidence-based approach to developing health advice on priority health issues.
The NHMRC will continue to provide advice in the form of statements, guidelines and scientific reports and will continue to support institutions and organisations to develop guidelines and, in partnership with professional bodies and consumer groups, provide advice which is timely and accurate. It will ensure advice is accessible by disseminating draft and final reports, guidelines and newsletters using multimedia approaches.
Ethics
The Australian Health Ethics Committee provides the NHMRC with guidelines for the conduct of medical research involving humans and with advice on ethical issues relating to health. The NHMRC is bound by its legislation to issue guidelines developed by the Australian Health Ethics Committee without amendment.
In the area of health ethics, the NHMRC will finalise and promulgate the complete revision of the Statement on Human Experimentation and will further enhance its leadership role in the field of human genomics by preparing guidelines for researchers and the community.
Office of National Health and Medical Research Council
Top of pageThe office of the National Health and Medical Research Council (ONHMRC) is an integral part of the Department of Health and Aged Care with specific objectives to provide support to the Council and the Department through:
- health and medical research policy development and grants administration;
- the encouragement of high standards of ethical conduct in health and medical research and the development of health and ethics advice;
- evidence-based advice which contributes to public policy; and
- ensuring the health workforce is appropriately trained and distributed to meet the health needs of the Australian community.
The Office will be implementing an enhanced peer review process in the 1999 grant round as well as arrangements to enhance research career opportunities for young researchers in clinical and public health research.
A key priority for the ONHMRC in the coming year will be the implementation of the Government's response to the findings of the Health and Medical Research Strategic Review. The Review has been looking at identifying the threats to our health and medical research sector, investigating the likely future opportunities and develop recommendations on the most appropriate strategy to deliver the best health outcomes for Australia.
The Health Workforce Unit will continue working with the medical profession in the areas of doctor supply and training and provide national leadership on health workforce issues for other professions. We will continue to facilitate access to temporary resident doctors for rural and remote communities.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare will assist in the achievement of this outcome by informing community discussion and decision making through national leadership in the development and provision of authoritative and timely information and analysis on the health and welfare of Australians.
During 1999-2000, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare will focus on:
- improved information on health and community services available to the community and for decision making at all levels;
- national cooperative approach to the development and production of national health and community services statistics and information;
- developing a nationally cooperative approach to the development and production of housing assistance information; and
- national statistics and information that provide a valid and reliable basis for decision making on the wellbeing of Indigenous peoples.
Budget Measures Affecting Outcome 9
Health and Medical Research boost
Top of pageExpense ($m)
 | 1999-00 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 |
| Department of Health and Aged Care | 16.7 | 51.0 | 86.4 | 119.9 |
Explanation
The Government will provide an additional $613.7 million over six years to strengthen the capacity of the health and medical research sector and increase Australia's investment in national research priorities. The funding will more than double the current base research funding ($165 million in 1998-99) of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) by the year 2005.
One of the focuses of this investment will be the enhancement of Australia's expertise in medical genomics and other leading edge technologies. The additional funding will also allow increased investment in a broad range of high impact research undertaken through the NHMRC. An additional focus will be placed on identifying and addressing research priorities, with a strategic emphasis on those areas in need of further research and the development of improved health care interventions.
The increased funding will also enable the provision of improved research facilities and an increased level of research activity, which will be complemented by other initiatives to provide additional career and training opportunities for health and medical researchers.
In addition, a full time leader will be appointed to the NHMRC. This will enable the NHMRC to play an enhanced role in ensuring research investment in areas of national priority, and that the increased investment is ultimately translated into improved health outcomes.
Infrastructure support for health and medical research institutes
Expense ($m)
| 1999-00 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 |
| Department of Health and Aged Care | 5.0 | 15.0 | - | - |
Explanation
The Government has decided to establish or augment physical facilities in health and medical research institutes. Many of Australia's top performing health and medical researchers are based in these independent institutes, which are acknowledged as world leaders for the conduct of high quality health and medical research.
Further Information
The funding will be provided through a competitive grants round. An expert Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council will advise the Minister on the allocation of the funds. Its recommendations will be based on the scientific excellence of the research currently being undertaken within an institute and the demonstrated need for new or augmented facilities in order to improve that level of research excellence in Australia.
Establishing regional medical schools
Top of pageExpense ($m)
| 1999-00 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 |
| Department of Health and Aged Care | 5.0 | 15.0 | - | - |
Explanation
The Government will establish a clinical school to be based in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, and a medical school at James Cook University in Queensland.
Further Information
The Government made a commitment to provide $10 million in capital funding for a new medical school at James Cook University. This funding, conditional upon Australian Medical Council accreditation of the medical school, is provided on the understanding that it matches $10 million pledged by the Queensland Government. Some of the funding for the establishment of a clinical school at Wagga Wagga will be resourced from existing portfolio allocations.
There is a shortage of medical practitioners in rural areas. Evidence suggests that both increasing the number of rural students in medicine and increasing exposure to rural service in medical training will improve the recruitment and retention of medical practitioners in rural areas. This measure is consistent with other initiatives such as providing financial assistance to universities to increase the number of indigenous and rural students enrolled in medicine.
Performance Information and Resource Allocation
The following indicators are designed to measure how effectively this outcome has been achieved.
Office of National Health and Medical Research Council
| Indicator 1: | NHMRC-funded health and medical research initiatives have internationally competitive research outputs. |
| Target: | NHMRC-funded research has citation rates that are at or above the international average citation rate in quality journals. |
| Info source/rept freq: | Bibliometric analysis - every three years. |
| Indicator 2: | The strategic research program of NHMRC contributes to national health priorities. |
| Target: | A high proportion of strategic research funding is in the national identified health priority areas. |
| Info source/rept freq: | Annual report of the Strategic Research Development Committee. |
| Indicator 3: | Health advice is timely, of a high quality and easily accessible. |
| Target: | All health advisory reports meet the NHMRC standards for evidence statements and are completed within the specified timeframe. |
| Info source/rept freq: | Analysis of NHMRC advisory reports - ongoing. |
| Indicator 4: | Policy and practice in the Australian health system draws on the outputs of national and international research and other relevant information. |
| Target: | A high uptake of evidence-based recommendations in NHMRC advisory reports. |
| Info source/rept freq: | Undertake stakeholder consultation for NHMRC. |
| Indicator 5: | Specialist medical practitioners to undertake at least some of their specialist training in rural areas. |
| Target: | Development of targets in consultation with colleges and states. |
| Info source/rept freq: | Reports from Medical Training Review Panel and the relevant medical specialist colleges. |
| Indicator 6: | Level of compliance with NHMRC ethical standards and guidelines for health and medical research. |
| Target: | 100% compliance with the ethical standards and guidelines. |
| Info source/rept freq: | Annual compliance reports from Institutional Ethics Committees. |
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)
| Indicator 7: | Development and production of authoritative and timely statistics and information on Australians and their health and welfare. |
| Target: | AIHW acknowledged as the leading agency in Australia in the development and production of authoritative and timely statistics and information on Australians and their health and welfare. |
| Info source/rept freq: | Ministers and Parliament, Commonwealth, State and Territory jurisdictions, relevant non-government organisations and appropriate peak bodies. |
| Indicator 8: | Agreement to national information standards developed through national health and community services agreements. |
| Target: | All jurisdictions agree to national information standards in health and welfare data collections. |
| Info source/rept freq: | Commonwealth, State and Territory agencies and non-government organisations in the health and welfare field. |
| Indicator 9: | Development of an agreement between the jurisdictions on national housing assistance data. |
| Target: | Agreement on national housing assistance information drafted. |
| Info source/rept freq: | Commonwealth, State and Territory housing and statistical agencies and peak non-government organisations. |
| Indicator 10: | Implementation of the priority strategies identified in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Information Plan and develop similar information plans for Indigenous community services and housing assistance. |
| Target: | Strategies developed and implemented during the budget period. |
| Info source/rept freq: | Commonwealth, State and Territory jurisdictions, relevant non-government organisations, national peak bodies with an interest in, and who influence policy on Indigenous health, community services and housing issues. |
Resource Allocation
The allocation of resources for Outcome 9 is described in the following two Tables:
- Table C9.1 describes the relationship between the appropriation structure for Outcome 9 and the 1998-99 appropriation structure; and
- Table C9.2 sets out the allocation of resources across administered items and output groups for the Department and the Portfolio agencies that contribute to Outcome 9.
Table C9.1: Relationship between old appropriation structure and new Outcome structure for Outcome 9
| Outcome | Program |
| 9. Knowledge, information and training for developing better strategies to improve the health of Australians. | 1.3 Health Research and Information
2.1 Medicare Benefits and General Practice Development (part) 2.3 Acute Care (part) 5.4 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare |
| Appropriations
Department Appropriation Bill 1 Departmental outputs Administered expenses Appropriation Bill 2 Other administered expenses
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Appropriation Bill 1 Departmental outputs
| Appropriations
Sub-program 1.3 Appropriation Bill 1 Health research (including payments to the Medical Research Endowment Fund Reserve under the National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992) (340.3.02) Running Costs, including Section 31 receipts (340.1) (p)
Appropriation Bill 2 Medical research institutes capital funding (890.1.02) Sub-program 2.1 Appropriation Bill 1 Medical workforce - financial assistance for the provision of additional services in areas with a shortage of doctors (340.4.14) Running Costs, including Section 31 receipts (340.1) (p) Sub-program 2.3 Appropriation Bill 1 Australian Medical Council (340.3.03)
Sub-program 5.4 Appropriation Bill 1 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (341.1) Other Appropriation Bill 1 Compensation and legal expenses (340.2.01) (p) |
Table C9.2: Resource summary for Outcome 9
Contribution of Administered Items and Departmental/Agency Outputs to Outcome 9
The National Health & Medical Research Council
The NHMRC does not receive any monies by way of appropriation, it does not receive revenues from any other source, it incurs no expenditure on its own behalf and has no assets and liabilities.
The Department of Health and Aged Care receives appropriations from Parliament to provide the resources to meet the NHMRC's objectives.
Top of page
Office of National Health and Medical Research Council
The Office of National Health and Medical Research Council's major outputs of quality policy advice, research grants administration, national leadership and the development and dissemination of information reflect the Government's commitment to health investment and the strengthening of the public health workforce. This commitment is achieved in partnership with the research and medical professions, other levels of Government, community groups and other stakeholders and in accordance with stated ethical and scientific standards. With the support of the NHMRC and its Principal Committees, the Department monitors and advises on research in all fields relevant to health and health services.
In order to achieve this outcome the Government has decided to spend $194m. These funds will be directed to the NHMRC's three main programs:
- the Research Program;
- the Advisory Program; and
- the Ethics Program,
To support the Government decision to allocate funds to these areas the Department will provide a range of outputs in six output groups.
To ensure that the funding allocated to this outcome is used in the most effective way the Department provides a policy advice service to the Ministers. The advice provided covers the activities and deliberations of the Council and its various supporting committees. Council and its principal committees make funding recommendations to the Minister covering the variety of grant and awards programs, which the Office of the NHMRC administers on behalf of the Government.
ONHMRC provides additional services to the Ministers and Parliament through various reports about institutional ethics committees, compliance with NHMRC guidelines and the Privacy Act. The Office also drafts responses to Ministerial correspondence and the preparation of question time briefs.
These achievements are dependent on a range of stakeholders (State and Territory Governments, universities and other tertiary institutions, and community groups) and the Department plays an important national leadership role in ensuring that these different stakeholders work together.
To support this national leadership role, the ONHMRC provides an extensive publication and information service to service providers and clients.
The principal activity of the ONHMRC is the assessment and allocation of grant funds, and the Office provides an extensive contract administration and funds management role for the appropriations allocated by the Government to the Department for NHMRC and other activities under Outcome 9. These activities are structured to ensure that the administered funds are used to provide effective and quality research.
The Department also carries out a number of regulatory activities determined by the relevant legislation (The National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992).
Top of page
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)
To support the Government decision to allocate funds to these areas, the AIHW will provide a range of outputs in four output groups.
The Institute produces expert objective information advice on statistical and related aspects of development, collection, compilation and analysis of national community services and health information, which is available to governments, and non-government and community organisations.
The AIHW provides additional services to Ministers and Parliament through a range of reports, but particularly through Australia's Welfare 1999, a comprehensive welfare report concerning the provision of welfare services to the Australian people, and Australia's Health 2000, which provides statistics and related information concerning the health of the Australian people.
The Institute relies on the guidance, support and cooperation of a range of key players to achieve its objectives. The Institute plays a leadership role in its work with stakeholders to enhance the national system of health and welfare information.
The AIHW supports its activities in the preceding three Output areas through its information development and dissemination activities which provide accessible national information on Australia's health, community services and housing to meet the needs of the community and government.
The following performance information provides a comprehensive overview of the administered items and departmental outputs together with performance measures for these items and outputs.
Table C9.3: Performance Information for Administered Items
The National Health and Medical Research Council and its Office
1. Grants, including for research in all fields relevant to health and health services in accordance with stated ethical and scientific standards; and workforce development, including a strengthened public health workforce.
| Quantity: The number of grants funded each year varies, depending on the budget for fundable grants and the total funding available for new grants in that year. In recent years the number of new grants has been around 300 each year.
Quality: The quality of the research produced is measured by effectiveness indicators 1 and 6 (see pages 218 and 219). Effectiveness: Medical schools will be expected to have at least 25% of their student intake to be students from rural areas. Progressively the specialist colleges with large training programs will be expected to have all trainees undertake a rural component. Quality: Establishment of a medical school at James Cook University in North Queensland by June 2000. Establishment of a clinical school to be based at Wagga Wagga by June 2000. Quality: Establishment to be completed by June 2000. This includes company constitution developed and company registered, managing director and board appointed by the minister, strategic plan developed and research priorities established. |
Table C9.4: Performance Information for Departmental/Agency Outputs
The National Health and Medical Research Council and its Office
1. Policy advice to the Ministers and Government in relation to research, health standards and health workforce development including:
| Quality: A high level of satisfaction of the Minister and Parliamentary Secretary with the relevance, quality and timeliness of policy advice provided.
Quantity: Policy, research and advice service commensurate with the funds allocated. This is in addition to the advice and contributions made by NHMRC and its network of committees and advisory groups. Price: $1.340m. |
2. Services to the Ministers and Parliament, including:
| Quality:A high level of satisfaction of the Ministers and Parliament with the relevance, quality and timeliness of services provided.
Agreed timeframes met for responses to ministerial correspondence, Question Time Briefs, Parliamentary Questions on Notice and ministerial requests for briefing. Quantity: Number of responses to ministerial correspondence, Question Time Briefs, Parliamentary Questions on Notice and ministerial requests for briefing will be collected during 1999-00 and used as a future benchmark. Price: $1.594m. |
3. National leadership through support for the NHMRC, including meetings of the NHMRC and its principal committees:
| Quality: A high level of satisfaction of stakeholders with the quality and timeliness of Commonwealth inputs to national policy, planning and strategy development and implementation.
A high level of satisfaction of supported committees with the relevance, quality and timeliness of support and advice. Quantity: National leadership service commensurate with the funds allocated. It is estimated that there are 250 - 300 meetings of Council, its principal committees, sub-committees and working parties conducted each year. Price: $1.773m |
4. Information development and dissemination including:
| Quantity: Reports relating to:
NHMRC News - 2 editions published per year. Ad hoc reports and tables are generated from the grant management database on request - approximately 240 per annum. Quality: All publications will be professionally produced and presented for sale in retail outlets. Quality: All reports will be published within two months of council endorsement and will be made available on the NHMRC website within four weeks of council endorsement. NHMRC Strategic Plan 2000-2002 published by 30 June 2000. NHMRC Review of 1997-2000 Strategic Plan published by 30 June 2000. Price: $3.794m. |
5. Contract administration and funds management for research grants, including:
| Quantity:Over 1900 grants will be administered under the following categories:
Quality: Budget predictions are met and actual cash flows vary by less than 10% from predicted cash flows. 100% of payments are made accurately and on time. High level of satisfaction with the timeliness and accuracy of information. Price: $4.685m. It is estimated that in 1999 the average cost of processing each project grant is $494. |
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
1. Expert objective information advice to governments, non-government and community organisations in relation to:
| Quality: A high level of satisfaction of government, non-government and community organisations with the relevance, quality, timeliness and objectivity of information advice provided.
Quantity: Expert objective information service commensurate with the funds allocated. Price: $4.240m. |
2. Services to Ministers and Parliament, including:
| Quality: A high level of satisfaction of the Ministers and Parliament with the relevance, quality and timeliness of services provided.
Submission of Australia's Welfare 1999 by 30 November 1999. Submission of Australia's Health 2000 by 30 June 2000. Submission of the AIHW Annual Report by 30 September 1999. Quantity: Preparation of the above three reports. Price: $0.239m. |
3. National leadership through the Institute taking a national leadership role in relation to promoting and supporting the development of:
| Quality: Use of national data standards in health, community services and housing assistance data collections.
Quantity: Version 9 of the National Health Data Dictionary. Version 2 of the National Community Services Data Dictionary. National agreement on housing assistance information. Price: $2.017m. |
4. Information development and dissemination including:
| Quality: Publication of major reports on health and welfare services within 12 months of the reference period.
Institute's website lists and presents all new Institute publications. Quantity: Development and dissemination service commensurate with the funds allocated. Price: $1.556m. |
Performance Assessment: Evaluations and Reviews
No major evaluations or reviews are planned for this Outcome in 1999-2000.
