Diabetes Week – More Funding, Better Care
The Australian Government’s ambitious health and hospital reforms have been boosted with more funding dedicated to researching diabetes, particularly finding a cure.
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11 July 2010
The Gillard Government’s ambitious health and hospital reforms were boosted today with more funding dedicated to researching diabetes, particularly finding a cure.
In support of Diabetes Awareness Week, the Government will provide $6.5 million more to continue research into type 1 diabetes at the Diabetes Vaccine Development Centre (DVDC).
This is in addition to the $5 million provided earlier to fund the DVDC and a further $5 million provided to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in June 2010 for the Australian Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Trial Network.
Today's funding announcement takes the total current research funding to investigate the causes, effects, impacts and complications of diabetes to more than $78 million.
Further, the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS) and expenditure on medicines for diabetes through the PBS exceeds $400 million each year.
This Government has a strong track record of improving the care and practical assistance to people with diabetes.
In recent months the Government has announced it will spend $449.2 million more on treatment for those with diabetes via a new voluntary comprehensive model of care, along with a $5 million boost to help provide insulin pumps for children with Type 1 diabetes.
The personalised care packages that the Government is introducing are voluntary, and involve patients signing up with a GP practice of their choice. This practice will:
- be responsible for managing their care, including developing a personalised care plan;
- help organise access to the additional services they need, such as care from a dietician or physiotherapist; and
- be paid, in part, on the basis of their performance in keeping their patients healthy and out of hospital.
To rectify this, for the first time, Government funding of around $1,200 a year on average will be able to be used flexibly to deliver the full range of services patients need.
On top of this, the average general practice will also receive around $10,800 a year, paid partly on the basis of performance in providing better care and improving health outcomes.
The Government is working with patient and health consumer representatives and key primary health care groups, including GPs and allied health providers, on the detailed implementation arrangements for this policy. An advisory group will be formed to help facilitate this.
Long term illnesses like diabetes represent a big and growing challenge for our health system.
These reforms mark the beginning of a new way of treating Australians with long term illness.
They build on the Government’s $632 million investment in our medical workforce that will provide more than 6,000 additional doctors over the coming decade, and the $466.7 million for the creation of personal electronic health records to improve care across the health system.
These moves are part of the Government’s actions to deliver better health and hospital services for hard-working Australians.
For all media inquiries, please contact the Minister's Office on 02 6277 7220
Background – Diabetes in Australia, Type 1 Diabetes and the Diabetes Vaccine Development Centre (DVDC).
The number of Australians diagnosed with diabetes is estimated to grow to 2.2 million over the next decade. The majority of these have type 2 diabetes.In 2007-08, 32%, or 237,000, of avoidable hospital admissions were related to diabetes that could have been prevented through better management outside of hospital.
Research at the DVDC focuses on developing vaccines to prevent or delay the progress of type 1 diabetes.
This research may help to reduce the number of children and adults who have to face life-long treatment of this chronic disease with multiple injections and blood tests. Prevention will also reduce the risk of diabetes-related irreversible damage to kidneys, eyes, nerves, heart and major arteries.
In 2007, 987 children and 1369 adults developed type 1 diabetes*, joining the 140,000 Australians^ who already live with this challenging condition. There has been a 30% increase in the rate of new cases in children since 2000.*
* Australian Institute of Health and Medical Research, Australia’s Health 2010
^ Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
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