Health Policy

Principles

The Greens NSW believe:

1. The primary goal of health services should be to improve the standard of health (including physical, intellectual and social well being) across the whole population;
2. Primary health care, health promotion and illness prevention are fundamental components of an effective health system;
3. Because a wide range of government actions affect health outcomes, a whole of government approach to health is needed;
4. Access to health services is a basic right and should be based on health need - not on ability to pay;
5. An effective health system must be underpinned by responsible research into conventional medicine as well as complementary treatment modalities;
6. A wide range of conventional and proven complementary therapies should be accessible and affordable under the health system; and
7. The appalling health status of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people must be addressed as a matter of urgency.
   
   

   Goals

   The Greens NSW will work to:
8. Address jurisdictional inefficiencies associated with the divided health care responsibilities of our State and Federal governments;
9. Improve primary health care, including prevention, early intervention and treatment in illness care to reduce avoidable illness;
10. Ensure improved access to emergency health services;
11. Address pressing health problems, including hospital waiting lists, deficiencies in rural health services, mental illness, substance abuse and the poor health and reduced lifespan of Aboriginal and other socio-economically disadvantaged people; and
12. Improve research and evaluation of health interventions and service delivery.
    
    

    Policy Detail

    The NSW Greens will:
    

    Primary Health Care, Allied and Community Health Services

13. Increase the number of community health centres in appropriate areas of need;
14. Provide incentives to encourage the co-location of GPs in community health centres;
15. Increase the role of nurse practitioners in community health centres and other appropriate settings, including outpatient settings, and supporting collaboration with allied health practitioners and GPs;
16. Improve access, according to need, to community and allied health service such as physiotherapy, osteopathy, chiropractic, podiatry, occupational therapy, counselling, complementary therapies, and midwifery;
17. Improve co-ordination and integration between health services, including hospitals, post-hospital services and complementary therapies;
18. Expand the role of women’s health nurses to include prescribing emergency contraception, and undertaking Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) testing;
19. Increase the emphasis on health promotion, illness prevention and early diagnosis;
20. Address workforce and demand issues in the primary care sector, including the urgent need for improved conditions and career structures for home care and personal care workers; and
21. Implement accreditation standards for complementary practitioners and medicines, and establishing registers, professional conduct standards and complaints mechanisms for all therapeutic practitioners.
    
    

    Public Hospital Services

22. Ensure universal access to public hospitals is based on health needs rather than health insurance status;
23. Reducing emergency department and out patient waiting times.
24. Develop new programs to address the needs of patients with complex psychosocial needs who currently use emergency systems heavily as centres of last resort;
25. Improve linkages between hospitals and community based services, especially in relation to hospital discharge and prevention of avoidable admissions;
26. Increase the number of outpatient services offered through public hospitals, especially in rural areas;
27. Retain all current and future public hospital developments in public ownership;
28. Strengthen the primary care sector so that it can more effectively provide care and support to people in their homes; and
29. Improve the working conditions and career structures of nurses and allied health professionals, including those in the acute, the primary and the community care sectors, and the aged care hospitals, homes and communities.
    
    

    Dental Care

30. Increase State funding to provide services and ensure access for all to appropriate and effective dental care;
31. Target initiatives to increase access to dental services for those who are at a higher risk of poor dental health;
32. Ensure increased funding for public emergency dental services and preventive dental health programs;
33. Increase the number of TAFE places for dental health professionals;
34. Lobby the Federal government to:
• 34.1 Increase the number of training places for dentists
• 34.2 Provide Medicare rebates for dental care and
  
• 34.3 Support the development of programs to increase accessibility to quality dental care;
  
  

  Mental Health

35. Significantly increase funding for mental health services, including public hospital inpatient services, and community based outpatient and outreach services;
36. Improve and integrate hospital and community-based mental health services;
37. Address the high rate of homelessness amongst mentally ill people by establishing supported accommodation for people with mental illness, including crisis, medium-term and long-term accommodation with rehabilitation programs;
38. Increase support and respite services for carers/families who bear the burden of caring for people with mental illness;
39. Provide appropriate treatment in public health facilities and in prisons for prisoners with mental health problems;
40. Increase resources for community based services providing early intervention programs for mental health issues;
41. Fund additional services, including specialist psychiatric services, to assist people who present with symptoms of mental illness at hospital emergency services;
42. Improve funding for research into, and services for, people with dual diagnosis involving mental illness and drug and alcohol use;
43. Ensure that people who are drug and alcohol dependent are primarily regarded as clients of the health system rather than the criminal justice system;
44. Support the development of innovative and targeted mental health interventions;
45. Recognise and address the special needs of refugee, temporary protection visa (TPV) holders, and other displaced persons;
46. Make additional funding available to allow the provision of mental health services within schools;
    
    

    Population Health

47. Better meet essential non-acute health needs in the community through increased funding for basic health promotion and disease prevention;
48. Develop an integrated whole of government framework for good health, by identifying and co-ordinating activities in portfolios which contribute to health such as urban planning, employment, transport, community services, and environment;
49. Support neighbourhood level planning and policy development that addresses needs at the level of people's daily lives and experiences;
50. Encourage a variety of structured school, work and community based physical activity programs, including physical education programs in all schools;
51. Promote the importance of healthy lifestyle choices to the general population, and to specific target groups such as pre-diabetics;
52. Provide increased funding to expand the range of health promotion activities provided by NSW Health;
53. Restructure and adequately resourcing the current health bureaucracy to ensure the population health measures are central within the overall health care system;
54. Develop public health impact assessments for all major industrial and infrastructure developments;
55. Support the implementation of municipal public health plans in all local government municipalities;
56. Extend and enforce a ban on smoking in all defined and enclosed/partially enclosed public spaces;
57. .Expand programs to increase physical activity and good nutrition in children and young people, including providing school-based programs such as healthy canteens, and providing skate parks, green open spaces and "walking school buses";
58. Increase awareness of the importance of physical activity to healthy weight control, with particular focus on target groups such as overweight children and adults;
59. Ensuring that physical activity and healthy food choices become a recognised part of Occupational Health and Safety policies and workplace health policies;
60. Support the development of a better understanding of the effects of work (including exposure to physical, chemical and psychosocial hazards at work) on individual and community health;
61. Encourage public and private sector food services, hospitals, and child care centres to offer a variety of healthy food choices consistent with recognised dietary guidelines;
62. Strengthen the regulation of the foods served in school canteens to improve health outcomes;
63. Advocate a ban on advertising unhealthy foods during children’s television viewing times, and support the introduction of a federal tax on unhealthy foods;
64. Ban the sale and/or manufacture in NSW of products containing transfats;
65. Improve and enforce mandatory accurate and comprehensive food labelling.
    
    

    Maternal and Child Health

66. Support maternity and birthing services (including pre-conceptual care) that are sensitive to the needs of all women, and that give them control, choice, and continuity, and allow them to remain active in the labour and birthing experience;
67. Develop an integrated approach to the needs of children and young families;
68. Reduce interventions in labour, including induction, instrumental and Caesarean deliveries, so that such decisions reflect the best international evidence;
69. Provide breastfeeding programs based on women's needs and experiences, free from the influence of commercial interests;
70. Provide culturally sensitive maternity and early childhood services;
71. Ensure all women have access to adequate personal income, leave, rest and social support during maternity and parenting;
72. Increase midwife-based birthing services and woman-centred services, and improving continuity of care in all public hospitals;
73. Provide a Birth Centre in regions where these services are not offered in mainstream health services;
74. Increase breastfeeding programs that are based on women's needs and experiences;
75. Expand Maternal and Child Health and early childhood services;
76. Increase post-natal services, and in particular services for women experiencing post-natal mood disorder;
77. Provide programs in hospitals and the community for birthing and parenting designed for women at risk;
78. Provide culturally sensitive maternity and birthing programs to address the needs of migrant groups;
    
    

    Community Consultation

79. Achieve greater and more effective consumer participation in health decision making;
80. Resourcing those health consumer organisations that assist consumers to participate fully in decisions about health care and health resources;
81. Implementing a Charter of Patient Rights, with consumers and patients encouraged to play a stronger role in their own care;
82. Including members of the health workforce (doctors, nurses, midwives, allied health and other health professionals) in health service delivery policy development and planning;
83. Develop a code of practice for the provision of health information, which is based on ethical standards and requires full disclosure of financial interests by all individuals and organisations providing health information to the public, the media and health service providers;
    
    

    Commonwealth/State Responsibilities

84. Reform the current state/federal funding model which leads to cost shifting and buck passing;
85. Advocating, through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), for:
• 85.1 the establishment of a National Health Reform Council, as a vehicle to provide Australia with high-level independent health policy capacity;
• 85.2 Medicare, and increased public health funding, and
• 85.3 The redirection of the current subsidy to private health insurance to the state public health system; and
86. Develop improved accommodation options for young people currently in aged care facilities.

Follow this link for The Greens NSW Health Policy Summary.