CHF believes that consumers and leaders of health service organisations should work together to create a health system that is responsive to patient, consumer and carer preferences and needs. Equally, consumers and clinicians should work together to plan, develop and evaluate services. Evidence is building about the links between effective partnerships, good consumer experience and high quality health care.

For example:

• At the treatment level the existence of effective partnerships is associated with improved clinical outcomes, delivery of preventive care services and adherence to treatment regimens.
• At the system level there is evidence that delivering health care that is based on partnerships can result in reduced hospital costs, lower cost per case and reduced length of stay.

With this evidence in mind, CHF provides the following comments about the proposed accreditation requirements and processes for emergency medicine specialist training providers.