Interim report calls for cohesion in quality and safety across care economy

A Productivity Commission (PC) interim report recommends that the Australian Government should better align quality and safety regulation across the care economy, including through a national approach to screening care workers. The report marks the final of five that the PC has published over two weeks, which set out practical reforms to boost Australia’s productivity.

In the present report, ‘Delivering quality care more efficiently’, it is also recommended that Australia facilitate collaboration in the commissioning of care services and establish a National Prevention Investment Framework — to help stop health and other problems before they start or get worse.

“In recent decades Australians have enjoyed more choice in services and better-quality care, but the system is coming under increasing pressure to deliver high quality services at a sustainable cost,” PC Commissioner Angela Jackson said. “Our proposed reforms seek to break through government’s siloed approach to decision-making and lift national productivity by improving the quality and efficiency of care services.”

Better alignment of quality and safety regulation across the care economy with, the report suggests, more effectively protect care users from unsafe providers and workers. Workers will also be allowed to move more easily across care sectors and paperwork for providers will be reduced — so they can redirect that attention to service delivery.

“Fragmented regulation across the care sector reduces productivity, heightens the risk of harms, limits access to care and creates unnecessary burdens for care providers. Previous reform efforts have faced roadblocks and lost momentum — we need a fresh, concerted approach,” PC Commissioner Martin Stokie said.

To be implemented over the next three years, other reforms recommended in the report include:

• that Australian governments work together to develop a national screening clearance for workers in aged care, the NDIS, veterans’ care and early childhood education and care, and
• that the federal government establish a common process to assess the suitability of providers; manage registration for providers in aged care, the NDIS and veterans’ care through the creation of a single digital portal; and ensure a consistent regulatory approach to AI in care sectors.
   

Australian governments are also being called on to jointly ensure that local hospital networks, primary health networks and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations work together to plan, procure and evaluate services for their communities — such practices that are known as ‘collaborative commissioning’.

“We have seen instances of successful collaborative commissioning initiatives around the country. It’s time to start embedding it through governance and funding reforms so it becomes usual practice,” PC Commissioner Alison Roberts said. Even a modest 10% reduction in potentially preventable hospitalisations through greater collaboration, the report finds, could save $600 million a year.

To inform the final report of ‘Delivering quality care more efficiently’, which will be delivered to the Australian Government later in the year, submissions are now being accepted by the PC.

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