Media Releases and Communiques

Australian Health Ministers’ Conference Communique - 7 June 2011

Australian Health Ministers met in Melbourne on 7 June and reached in principle agreement on legislation to establish the National Health Performance Authority as the next stage of national health reform.

PDF printable version of Australian Health Ministers’ Conference Communique (PDF 13 KB)

7 June 2011

Australian Health Ministers met in Melbourne today and reached in principle agreement on legislation to establish the National Health Performance Authority as the next stage of national health reform.

At a meeting of the Australian Health Ministers Conference, Ministers discussed proposed amendments to legislation to establish the National Health Performance Authority (NHPA), and refinements to the Performance and Accountability Framework, under which the NHPA will monitor, assess and report on performance of the health system. The establishment of the NHPA was agreed by COAG in February this year.

At the meeting today Ministers agreed in principle to targeted amendments to the legislation, including affirming the role of the States and Territories as system managers of public hospitals.

Ministers also endorsed in principle the draft Performance and Accountability Framework.

The Australian Health Ministers’ Conference will now refer the Performance and Accountability Framework to COAG.

Consistent with COAG agreement, Ministers agreed to a number of key measures to ensure reporting of performance in the Australian Healthcare system:

1. Health Ministers agreed that States and Territories are the system managers and as such the performance managers of public hospitals in Australia. The Performance Authority will report on the performance of hospitals and health networks, and these reports will be provided to State and Territory Health Ministers, as the system managers, prior to public release;
2. Health Ministers agreed to examine the number of national bodies that hospitals are required to report to with a view to rationalising the data requirements;
3. Health Ministers agreed that performance reporting of all areas including hospitals and health services, and primary care was required;
4. Ministers will establish hospital performance measurement criteria for national application; and
5. The in-principle agreement reached today is subject to a production of a final re-worked Bill and framework.