Accessibility and human rights, instead of rigid funding models, should be the priorities when planning health care services for rural and remote Australia says a leading Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic.
“A model of health-care funding for rural and remote Australia should be developed based on fundamental human rights and access to services rather than ‘bricks and mortar’,” said Professor Patrick Ball.
The Professor of Rural and Remote Pharmacy Patrick Ball studied two communities in Central West NSW between 2006 and 2008 as part of his examination of the provision of health services outside Australia.
“The two communities were similar and only a short distance apart but had very different health care needs due to transport links and proximity to a city,” said Professor Ball.
“We have the evidence to show that what is needed by rural and remote areas is more flexibility in allowing individual communities to meet their health needs and more emphasis on access to services rather than what hospital and which health facilities are located where.
“The expenditure of the health dollar has been centrally controlled and based on a mix of what a community has traditionally had and what the community has secured through pressure and lobbying.
“No community can have everything; therefore there is a need for flexibility in the future, including the sharing of health services between big and small communities and even trading of health services.
“The rigid model of health care funding does not serve rural and remote Australia well,” concluded Professor Ball.
Patrick Ball was appointed Australia’s first Professor of Rural and Remote Pharmacy when he joined CSU in 2005. His work centres on the provision of health services in rural and remote Australia. Professor Ball is based at the School of Biomedical Sciences at CSU at Wagga Wagga.
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