The Productivity Commission has identified important ways to improve healthcare quality and efficiency. But collaborative commissioning should use a broader set of measures than potentially preventable hospitalisations, which are too narrow, too volatile, and were designed to measure primary care access, not system integration.
And given the challenges of collaborative commissioning, co-commissioning primary care in ‘primary care deserts’ is a great place to start. That will be an ideal proving ground to build trust and capability for broader reforms.
But the bigger opportunity is in strengthening commissioning within existing systems. Individual jurisdictions can make huge improvements in care productivity and equity through better system management, in vaccination, primary care, and hospital financial management.
For prevention, rather than creating a new national prevention board, Australia should focus on the Australian Centre for Disease Control. The CDC doesn’t require establishing another agency, will avoid duplication, and will be a better fit with government structures than an orphaned cross-portfolio body.