Comprehensive Report: Primary Health Care in Australia

This report provides an overview of primary health care provision in Australia, focusing on the challenges faced by the population due to chronic conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. It explores various health issues including the shortage of medical resources, rising costs of treatment, and accessibility issues, especially in rural areas and for immigrants. The report highlights government initiatives like the National Diabetes Services Scheme and community programs aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles. It also discusses the roles of organizations like APNA and NPHCP in improving healthcare services and workforce development. The report emphasizes the importance of preventive, curative, and rehabilitative services, and the need for a transdisciplinary approach to meet patient needs. Finally, it underscores the importance of equal distribution of resources and patient-centered care to address health-related issues effectively.

Running head: PRIMARY HEALTH CARE PROVISION IN AUSTRALIA
PRIMARY HEALTH CARE PROVISION IN AUSTRALIA
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Primary health care refers to the first level care provided to the people with need outside
the hospital. The purpose of the primary health care provision is to provide services for
prevention of disease, promoting healthy environment and evidenced based method of health
care that is accessible, acceptable and affordable for every community within a population
(Macdonald 2013). The service providers include appropriate nursing personnel and educators as
well. The study will focus on the health issues, primary health care provisions in Australia and
recommendations regarding accessibility of such services.
The Australian population is suffering from severe chronic conditions. Half of the
population suffers from at least one of the particular health issue like arthritis, asthma,
cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, dementia, cancer and
mental health issues. Biomedical and behavioral risk factors are the main burden of the illness.
Other burdens include excessive smoking, drinking alcohol, fatness, hypertension and physical
inactivity that contribute significantly to the burden of illness and injury in Australia.
Beside such chronic conditions, there are many health challenges that are faced by the
Australian population. For example, due to increasing population shortage of medical resources
has occurred. Excessive rise in the cost of medical treatment and technology restrict the people to
access adequate facilities and low cost primary health care provisions provided by the
community is not accessible to the country-side. Thus, people residing in rustic area fail to avail
proper health care services.
Immigrants are facing health issues due to demographical changes. It is difficult to adapt
new environmental condition especially for the older people. Increasing pollution is one of the
main problems that cause many health issues. Constant urbanization is another factor that affects

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the health of the people, because it limits the availability of fresh water, air, food and other
natural resources.
Newborn babies are more prone to diarrhea, skin infections, common cold and fever, as
they have to go through enormous environmental changes. Children in the Australian population
face many health issues due to their lifestyle. They mainly suffer from obesity, asthma, allergy
and disability. Cancers of throat, lung and mouth are more visible in the adolescents due to
excessive use of tobacco, drugs and alcohol (Chang et al. 2015). They also suffer from
hypertension and eating disorder like bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa. Chronic conditions
of adults include high blood pressure, hyperlipidaemia, depression and anxiety. In contrast, older
people in Australian population are suffering from cardio vascular disease, diabetes, dementia
and physical disabilities. Half of the deaths occur within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people due to diabetes, respiratory disease, heart disease and cancer (Thomas,
Bainbridge and Tsey 2014).
National Diabetes Services Scheme is an initiative taken by the Australian government to
provide appropriate resources and services through funding (Lee 2013). They provide
information about self-management and services available in the local area. The community
arranges programme to promote healthy eating and physical activity to control diabetes and
provides peer support. Appropriate resource and services are available in the hospital to control
diabetes, for example, insulin is given to the patient to control the glucose level in the blood.
Patients are referred to the endocrinologists, obstetricians, ophthalmologists and cardiologists
according to their needs.

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Community resources are also provided to the people suffering from dementia. Proper
counseling is provided to the patients and different seminars are arranged to support the people
to live with dementia. In hospitals, training programme is given to the staffs and visual bedside
alert known as Cognitive Impairment Indicator is provided in order to take care of the patients.
Health Continuum or Illness-wellness Continuum is a tool that is used by the nurses to
counsel the patients. Dr. John W. Travis has provided the idea of Health Continuum in the year
1972 (Rapheal 2014). The main purpose is to inspire people to live an active and healthy life. It
provides knowledge regarding lifestyle choice and effective methods related to prevention of
diseases, which helps a person to take leap towards wellness and health.
Australian government has taken some steps to improve the efficiency of the nurses.
Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA) is the apex body for the nurses that
work in the primary health care organizations (Halcomb 2016). APNA plays an important role in
improving the participation of the nurses in patient centered care. National Primary Health Care
Partnership plays an important role in providing primary health care services. The main purpose
is to ensure the availability of the primary health care provisions to the people with need.
NPHCP develops the primary health care workforce through providing proper training, education
and recruitment initiatives to the nurses working in the health care organizations.
The annual report of Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care has
stated that, National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards are implemented in every
hospital and health care organizations and has shown an improvement in the patient safety and
health care quality (Magrabi 2013).

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The Australian journal of primary health care plays an important role in providing
relevant information regarding health care. The journal publishes evidenced-based research that
could help the health care organizations to improve their services (Ball, Desbrow and Leveritt
2014). The health care service providers need to understand the requirements of the patients.
Proper education need to be provided to make the patient about the illness
Preventive service delivery refers to the services provided to prevent the disease such as
immunization, counseling and preventive medication. Curative service delivery means services
provided to cure the disease, for example, proper diagnosis and medication to cure the disease.
Rehabilitative service defined as the services provided to prevent the illness from occurring
again after it being cured. This includes proper vaccination and healthy lifestyle.
Transdisciplinary care refers to care provided by a team including different kinds of
approaches to meet the all requirements of the people. In spite of having such services, many
people suffer from health issues.
From the above study, it can be said that, Australian population is suffering from many
chronic conditions. The government has taken remarkable steps regarding primary health care
services. The service providers need to access their services to every citizen. They need to focus
on equal distribution of medical resources. Empowerment of such strategies could be proved
beneficial for the people and the health care service providers as well. The service providers need
to understand the central needs of the patients and make avail their services widely to solve the
health related issues.

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References:
Ball, L., Desbrow, B. and Leveritt, M., 2014. An exploration of individuals’ preferences for
nutrition care from Australian primary care health professionals. Australian Journal of Primary
Health, 20(1), pp.113-120.
Chang, A.B., Bell, S.C., Torzillo, P.J., King, P.T., Maguire, G.P., Byrnes, C.A., Holland, A.E.,
O’Mara, P. and Grimwood, K., 2015. Chronic suppurative lung disease and bronchiectasis in
children and adults in Australia and New Zealand. Medical Journal of Australia, 202(1), pp.21-
23.
Halcomb, E., Stephens, M., Bryce, J., Foley, E. and Ashley, C., 2016. Nursing competency
standards in primary health care: an integrative review. Journal of clinical nursing, 25(9-10),
pp.1193-1205.
Lee, C.M.Y., Colagiuri, R., Magliano, D.J., Cameron, A.J., Shaw, J., Zimmet, P. and Colagiuri,
S., 2013. The cost of diabetes in adults in Australia. Diabetes Research and Clinical
Practice, 99(3), pp.385-390.
Macdonald, J.J., 2013. Primary health care: medicine in its place. Routledge.
Magrabi, F., Aarts, J., Nohr, C., Baker, M., Harrison, S., Pelayo, S., Talmon, J., Sittig, D.F. and
Coiera, E., 2013. A comparative review of patient safety initiatives for national health
information technology. International journal of medical informatics, 82(5), pp.e139-e148.

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Rapheal, J., 2014. Psychological Well-Being and Anxiety Among Adolescents Analysis Along
Wellness: Illness Continnuum.
Thomas, D.P., Bainbridge, R. and Tsey, K., 2014. Changing discourses in Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander health research, 1914–2014. Med J Aust, 201(1), pp.S1-4.