NUR3101: Analysis of Australian Primary Healthcare Strategies and WHO

This report examines Australia's key strategies in primary healthcare, focusing on a consumer-concerned system. It analyzes the integration of local hospital networks, consumers, and providers to improve health outcomes, especially for indigenous groups and in chronic disease prevention. The report highlights the alignment of these strategies with the World Health Organization's (WHO) principles of accessibility, community participation, health promotion, technological intervention, and inter-sectoral collaboration. It also discusses the social determinants of health, including equity, social justice, and epidemiological factors, particularly in the context of remote regions. The role of nurses in addressing these issues, as guided by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia's code of ethics, is emphasized, including their responsibility to consider social determinants and connect patients with necessary resources. The report concludes by stressing the importance of critical thinking and comprehensive assessment by nurses to ensure effective healthcare delivery and highlights the influence of WHO policies on the development of Australian strategies.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
Primary healthcare strategies
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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HEALTHCARE
World Health Organisation (WHO, 2019) defined primary health care as accessible
healthcare facilities to each person of the community and population. They considered the
total propaganda of mental, social, and physical health of an individual. It was the primary
motive to deliver facilities to all strata of the population effectively. Here, in this assignment
one key strategy undertaken by Australian Government in this issue along with the
collaboration of same with strategies of WHO is discussed here. Discussions about social
determinants concerning health such as epidemiological factors, social, economic and cultural
diversities are done here. The critical nursing practices governing above issues are also
delineated here.
One key strategy in Primary healthcare system of Australia is constructing a
consumer-concerned primary healthcare system integrating all. The services are appropriate
to focus on consumers mainly, and are mainly concentrating on specific needy subgroup in a
population. The focus was to develop proper protocols between local hospital networks,
concerning consumers and local providers, to result in an integrated plan composing all, to
achieve the best result for all people concerned along with the community. They planned on
identifying the health requirement and provide equal access to all indigenous groups along
with providing best evidence-based interventions, recognise the need of proper child
development, and for the Medicare locals to work with all mediums concerned to prevent
chronic diseases and avoid unnecessary hospitalizations (Australian Government Department
of Health, 2019).
The World Health Organisation (2018) formulated five basic strategies concerned
with primary health care. They were proper accessibility, participation by community as a
whole, health promotion, technological intervention, and collaboration among various
sectors. The strategy of Australia focusing on customer-based healthcare system monitors the
participation of whole community. There they highlighted that integrated service system,

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with active participation of local consumers, Medicare locals and all locally available health
care services is important for effective result. It supported the strategy of WHO which
highlighted the role of the whole community and health promotion in the procedure. Here,
Australian Government also mentioned about the rights of Aboriginal or Torres Islander,
which can be said as direct influence of WHO’s proposal of proper accessibility of all. It can
be suggested that the primary health care policy of Australia was just on the footprint of
WHO’s policies.
According to Thomas, Wakerman and Humphreys (2015), Australia is experiencing a
poorer outcome of health when compared to city-dwellers, the primary reason being racism,
poor education and knowledge, low income and poor access to health facility. It was
highlighted that the rates of chronic diseases and hospitalisations are extremely high in
remote regions along with increased mortality. The worst sufferers are the socio-
economically ill-developed population facing burdens of inequality and racism. The
Australian Council of Social Service (2018) stated that about 13.2% of the population are
residing below the poverty line, 17.3% of which are children.
The health disparity among these strata of population needs national intervention with
effective policies. Australia’s recent policies declare equal access of everyone irrespective of
economic status or caste to healthcare resources. But, it is a challenge to implement the
policy through the vast remote zone of Australia (Thomas, Wakerman & Humphreys 2015).
It is to be remembered that WHO has declared equal accessibility to all and they also urged
conglomeration of various sectors like Government, private organisations in relation to
improving primary health care (PHC). Garneau, Browne and Varcoe (2016) have highlighted
the important role of national agencies and international associations for providing PHC in
the remote zones.

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Greenhalgh et al. (2016) stated that epidemiological factors like consuming healthy
food, alcohol consumption, addiction to smoking, along with the origin of the population
largely modifies the health of the individual and hence also accessibility to primary
healthcare. Australian Government Department of Health (2016) suggested various
determinants of health status of the individuals, like genetic predisposition, lifestyle,
biomedical factors like high blood pressure, diabetes and addictions. They suggested that
indigenous population of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population are more likely to
smoke and hence are more often experiencing health difficulties.
WHO suggested technological intervention, and participation of the whole community
in various regions to deal with the issues of poor PHC facilities. Greenhalgh et al. (2016)
suggested that community based health services have better outcome when collaboration in
sense of academic and practical knowledge takes place. So, it can be stated that effective
formulations of technologies available, along with research knowledge and active
participation of all communities and organisations for funding must be done to deal with
epidemiology and disease related factors. Health care service providers like nurses can
actively participate in such situations to help people.
The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (2016) stimulated some code of ethics
for nurses which clearly states that nurses must take proper care, respect the diversity of
people, provide equal nursing care to all. They must assess a situation properly before
intervention. Northwood et al. (2017) suggested that social determinants influence the
healthcare plan of individuals and hence nurses have the responsibility to ignore such causes
and help people. The nurses must contact social workers to raise awareness and consult
counsellors to deal with psychological difficulties in ethnic population. They can also contact
organisations who can help provide free access to medical facility to the needy. The
Australian Government Australian Charities and Not-for Profits Commission (2019) can

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potentially help such distressed people. Frumkin (2016) suggests that environmental change,
high range of population are aggravating the picture of healthcare consequently. The nurses
can consult the Governmental authorities to deal with such situations. They can raise
awareness regarding climate change and pollution within people to educate them about the
need to improve healthcare scenario of the place.
In conclusion, a nurse must show critical thinking and assess situations clearly before
intervention. The Australian Government have largely developed the key strategies for PHC,
being influenced by the healthcare policies of WHO. The necessity to include the whole
community and consumers and create effective networking system for improved healthcare
was highlighted throughout. The issues of equity to healthcare facilities, diversity of
population, social, economic and environmental factors were also significantly discussed.

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References
Australian Council of Social Service. (2018). Poverty. Access Date: 24th July,2019.
[Online].Retrieved From: https://www.acoss.org.au/poverty/
Australian Government Australian Charities and Not-for Profits Commission.(2019)Action
on Poverty Limited. Access Date: 24th July,2019. [Online].Retrieved From:
https://www.acnc.gov.au/charity/6800dbd922eaa2341c56465725f9409d
Australian Government Deaprtment of Health. (2019). Primary Health Care in Australia.
Access Date: 24th July,2019. [Online].Retrieved From:
https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/NPHC-
Strategic-Framework~phc-australia
Blanchet Garneau, A., Browne, A. J., & Varcoe, C. (2016). Dialectical relations between
equity discourses and healthcare practices in primary health care. 2nd International
Critical Perspectives in Nursing and Healthcare, Sydney, available at: http://sydney.
edu. au/nursing/pdfs/critical-perspectives/blanchet-garneau-browne-varcoe-equity.
pdf (accessed 27 September 2017).[Google Scholar].
Frumkin, H. (Ed.). (2016). Environmental health: from global to local. John Wiley & Sons.
Greenhalgh, T., Jackson, C., Shaw, S., & Janamian, T. (2016). Achieving research impact
through co‐creation in community‐based health services: literature review and case
study. The Milbank Quarterly, 94(2), 392-429.
Northwood, M., Ploeg, J., Markle‐Reid, M., & Sherifali, D. (2018). Integrative review of the
social determinants of health in older adults with multimorbidity. Journal of advanced
nursing, 74(1), 45-60.

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Nursing and midwifery Board of Australia. (2016). Code of Ethics for nurses in Australia.
Access Date: 24th July, 2019. [Online]. Retrieved from:
file:///D:/PPT%20Materials/code%20of%20nurse%20australia.pdf
Thomas, S. L., Wakerman, J., & Humphreys, J. S. (2015). Ensuring equity of access to
primary health care in rural and remote Australia-what core services should be locally
available?. International journal for equity in health, 14(1), 111.
World Health Organisation. (2018). Primary Health Care. Access Date: 24th July,2019.
[Online].Retrieved From: https://www.who.int/primary-health/en/