Community Alliance Party

The Community Alliance Party supports a publicly funded, accessible world-class health care system for the ACT. The Alliance supports the establishment of substantive and holistic preventative health programs. The Alliance supports local health facilities.

The ACT is confronted by a health care crisis. An ageing population and technological advancements have increased demand for health care services and placed continuing strain on hospitals and resources. Meanwhile, we have Australia’s lowest bulk-billing rates exacerbated by a worsening shortage of doctors. Our health workforce is ageing as well.

Speech: Health crisis demands a new approach | More comments

Community health care

• The Alliance will work with communities to develop local, community-driven health and wellbeing clinics in areas of need, beginning with the centre developed by the West Belconnen Health Cooperative for one of Canberra's most disadvantaged, isolated and under-serviced communities - North West Belconnen, and nearby areas of NSW. Based on European and Melbourne experience, the centres provide affordable: health education, community connection, volunteering, early intervention, social support, living skills, recovery, access to bulk-billing GPs and wellbeing support. They will also save money by helping to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions, allowing the hospitals to concentrate on acute cases. The model can be extended to other areas of identified need within the ACT. UPDATE: this now has cross-party support
• The Alliance recognises the complex and varied health needs of the elderly and will ensure that additional resources are provided for rehabilitation support, occasional care, respite care, and palliative care. The Alliance will improve access to home nursing services for the aged and people with disabilities.
• The Alliance will insist that families with young babies are better supported by improving the availability of community health nurses, including the re-instatement of home-visits for new mothers through a maternal and child health services program.

Preventative health care

• The Alliance will seek to ensure access to:
  • regular preventive health checks for everyone in the community
  • healthy lifestyles promotion (exercise, healthy eating, sleep, stress management, sun protection, safe driving) that achieves significant behaviour change
  • age appropriate health education in schools and colleges (addictions, eating disorders, STDs, stress management) that achieves significant behavioural change
  • better convalescent, rehabilitation, and physiotherapy services, since avoiding recurrence is an important part of preventative health care
  • online doctors for simple advice via the Healthdirect website.
  More about preventative health measures

Regional health care

• The Alliance supports improved cooperation and collaboration with the NSW Health Service. This will allow for the more efficient allocation of resources, and support ACT residents who need to access specialist care that is not available in the ACT.

Mental health care

• The Alliance supports improved services for people with mental illness, including construction of a residential acute-care facility for children with mental illness, and respite care services to supporting carers of people with mental illness. The delivery model will be developed and evaluated in partnership with those who rely on the services and their families and carers.
  More about mental health

Health professionals care

• The Alliance supports the design of attractive careers and working conditions that will assist in the recruitment and retention of more health professionals in the ACT. The Alliance will work with the health sector to address the current imbalance between the numbers of frontline staff and administrators.
  Plans to bring more GPs into the workforce