CHF’s Consumer Commission report whose key recommendations included a focus on mental health, came out just days after the release of the Productivity Commission’s final report on mental health. The two reports produce broadly similar findings about the widespread dearth of services and pressing...

Leanne Wells, Mark Morgan and Leanne Beagley Social prescribing presents a step forward in healthcare. Far from being left behind by the dominating impact of COVID on health thinking, it appears that the pandemic is reinforcing the potential of social prescribing as a spur to improved health care,...

More than ever the COVID experience has brought home to us how inextricably the population’s health is linked to economic health. We have seen everyday evidence of how strong public health systems protect people and the economy by reducing the spread of recession-inducing disease. We have also seen...

CHF has undertaken numerous activities during the pandemic to gauge consumer sentiment on federal government initiatives. Among these have been Australia’s Health Panel surveys on telehealth and the COVIDSafe app, and CHF’s establishment of a Consumer Commission to inquire into the lessons of COVID...

How can patients and clinicians get a better outcome from health care? It’s a question of central importance never more so than now with health care not only continuing to rise in cost, but also in its power to both benefit and sometimes set back patients. One big solution is enabling patients and...

A paradox of modern healthcare is that despite the huge strides in health and behavioural science, the value of patient experience and leadership often remains under-recognised and underused. In his new ebook, English author and patient advocate David Gilbert shows us just how much healthcare is...

The idea that the coronavirus pandemic offers at least one upside – a legacy of potential health care reforms such as telehealth – is a key factor in the CHF’s decision to establish the Consumer Commission: Beyond COVID-19. Various parts of the health system have been bent to fit the shape required...

Among the many issues which have emerged with fresh power for consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic is health ethics. Suddenly the concept of health ethics seemed not something merely to be considered in extremis. We were recognising then that we might soon all be in extremis. Within days of the...