I am a simple soul and I just want to know what the health budget is and the Digital Health spend it but the numbers and time frames are all over the place and seem designed to confuse – rather than clarify! Even the expert journalists seem to struggle!
For the overall health picture I suspect the best we can do is the Health Portfolio statement.
Here is the top like summary.
Record investment in the future of Australia's health system
The Australian Government is investing in a stronger health system as part of our plan for a stronger future through a record $132 billion in 2022–23, increasing to $140 billion in 2025–26, with a total commitment of $537 billion over the next four years.
Date published: 29 March 2022
The Coalition Government is investing in a stronger health system as part of our plan for a stronger future through a record $132 billion in 2022–23, increasing to $140 billion in 2025–26, with a total commitment of $537 billion over the next four years.
This record funding will ensure Australians have access to improved healthcare, when and where they need it, helping them to lead healthier lives, with improved health outcomes and to provide ongoing protection against COVID-19.
We are strengthening our commitment to Australia’s Long Term National Health Plan, through important and strategic investments to deliver the world’s best health care system, including:
- $537 billion over the next four years, up $34 billion compared to the 2021–22 Budget including:
- $7.3 billion increase in Medicare funding
- $9.8 billion increase in Hospital funding
- $10.1 billion increase in Aged Care funding.
- $45.5 billion over four years to access more affordable medicines through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), and more than $2.4 billion this Budget to add vital new medicines to the PBS
- $1.7 billion towards the objectives of the Primary Health Care 10 Year Plan including:
- Ensuring telehealth remains a permanent part of Australia’s health system, which has improved access to quality health care for Australians, with more than 100 million services already delivered since March 2020.
- $296.5 million to deliver improvements in regional, rural and remote health as part of the 10-Year Stronger Rural Health Strategy, including $66 million to deregulate access to Medicare funded Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) services in MMM 2–7 areas, and
- $6.8 billion over four years for life-saving and life changing research, informed by the Government’s updated Medical Research Future Fund 10 Year Investment Plan
- $4.2 billion to continue protecting Australians against COVID-19, through supply and access to safe and effective vaccines, treatments and support for our health workforce in primary care, aged care and hospitals
- $4.6 billion over four years to continue to drive improvements in health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians
- $522 million to deliver the second year of our five-year implementation plan of the once-in-a-generation reform to Australia’s aged care system, to deliver respect, care and dignity to our senior Australians in response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety
- $648.6 million for Stage 2 of the Government’s Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Reform Plan, to ensure Australians can access appropriate mental health care when they need it, taking total investment in the Plan to nearly $3 billion
- $333 million to increase outcomes in women’s health, including
- $81.2 million to provide carrier screening for three genetic conditions (cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy and fragile X syndrome), making Mackenzie's Mission a permanent part of our health system, and
- $58 million for diagnosis, treatment and awareness of endometriosis
- $149.8 billion over 5 years to continue our record levels of investment in public hospitals, including funding under the 2020–25 National Health Reform Agreement (NHRA). An increase from $13.3 billion in 2012–13 to $28.1 billion in 2022–23 growing to $32.7 billion in 2025–26.
Here is the link:
Further down we see digital health:
Digital Health
The Government is investing $72 million to modernise Australia’s health system, including delivering innovative new methods to provide care, and continuing the momentum for embracing new technologies through the Health Delivery Modernisation Program.
We are also investing $64.5 million for the 2018–2022 Intergovernmental Agreement on National Digital Health (IGA). This ensures interoperability within Australia’s national digital health infrastructure, to deliver improvements to health system quality and safety, accountability, transparency and patient-centred healthcare.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) will invest $2.9 million to continue to safeguard national health data critical to informing the Government’s Long-Term National Health Plan and improving the health and wellbeing of all Australians.
-----
Note the IGA cited with the States seems to stop in 3 months after 4 years!
The ADHA has its own document found about ½ way down this page:
https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/budget-2022-23-portfolio-budget-statements
This seems to be a useful summary: (p177 of full document)
Table 1.1: Australian Digital Health Agency Resource Statement – Budget Estimates for 2022–23 as at Budget March 2022
|
2021–22
Estimated actual |
2022–23 |
|
|
Opening balance/cash reserves at 1 July |
106,282 |
91,282 |
|
Funds from Government |
|
|
|
Annual appropriations |
|
|
|
Ordinary annual services (a) |
|
|
|
Outcome 1 (b) |
218,945 |
213,284 |
|
Other services (c) |
|
|
|
Equity injection |
22,104 |
18,406 |
|
Total annual appropriations |
241,049 |
231,690 |
|
Amounts received from related entities (d) |
|
|
|
Amounts from the Portfolio Department |
- |
- |
|
Amounts from other entities |
- |
- |
|
Total amounts received from related entities |
- |
- |
|
Total funds from Government |
241,049 |
231,690 |
|
Funds from other sources |
|
|
|
Interest |
- |
- |
|
Rental income |
- |
- |
|
Sale of goods and services |
- |
- |
|
Other |
32,250 |
32,250 |
|
Total funds from other sources |
32,250 |
32,250 |
|
Total net resourcing for Australian Digital Health Agency |
379,581 |
355,222 |
|
2021–22 |
2022–23 |
|
|
Average staffing level (number) |
335 |
410 |
----- End extract.
You can read others efforts at working it out:
Here:
Australian Government delivers tech heavy Budget but critics say health system pressures will continue
This week's Budget will boost digital uptake and cybersecurity, but doctors' groups say it failed to provide the funding the COVID-19 fatigued health system needs.
By Lynne Minion
March 31, 2022 03:59 AM
-----
And here:
Budget 2022: Funds to link MyHR to MyGP, develop ‘meaningful use index’
Written by Kate McDonald on 30 March 2022.
-----
Make of all this what you will but the Planned Performance for the Australian Digital Health Agency a little further down is worth a read showing the aims for annual growth in public and clinician usage for the #myHR 20% and 15% (p182) and e-prescribing growth (20%)
Amazingly, after a decade of use they now want to “Establish approach, methodology and baseline for measuring user experience of MHR” and deluge us will educational events “Deliver 350 digital health literacy and awareness related educational events”
They also want to develop a “meaningful use index” whatever that is for the #myHR!
I have no idea what this actually means!
“Balance Sheet
The Agency has provided for expenditure on My Health Record in 2021–22 and 2022–23. Sufficient accumulated funds are maintained to meet employee entitlements and other liabilities.”
I can’t find any specific figures – maybe someone else can!
All in all
the overall Health Budget is huge ($132 B per annum) and Digital Health seems
to be around $500 millon a year give or take! Overall, as best I can tell funding for he #myHR seems to be on a yearly basis as not for the full estimates.
In passing cyber got about $9+ billion over 4 years!
Any important other insights welcome!
David.
"This ensures interoperability within Australia’s national digital health infrastructure, to deliver improvements to health system quality and safety, accountability, transparency and patient-centred healthcare"
ReplyDeleteEnsure? If you believe that you should go and talk to someone about your delusional thoughts.
That is comparability not interoperability so we are off to a roaring start.
ReplyDeleteBut just for amusement let’s pretend the scholars at ADHA are about to ensure interoperability across the health system - which agreements should we start with? The social, political, and organisational factors that impact system-to-system performance, semantic and syntactic? We have FHIR and many other open standards to coax technology systems to work together.
These people are a joke. We have spent a lot more than $2Billion for no result, only damage to a once innovative industry. Given the government debt, cancelling the whole national eHealth "effort" would probably be the best way to give us some chance of success because with them in charge the chance of success is zero.
ReplyDelete@ John, I believe you meant “compatibility” rather the “comparability”, and I fully agree that is a fundamental distinction.
ReplyDeleteFor years, government agencies, departments and other spin-offs have attempted to “reinvent” health care, and again we have ADHA trying to rally the visionary impaired. Yet again, they’ve ignored the healthcare institutional infrastructure issues that confront the people who deliver care — doctors, nurses, assistants, and others — or in repeated succession, tried to replace their function altogether. The results have been only small gains and more considerable scepticism, and as Andrew states, hampers the software industry.
The ADHA under Tim Kelsey followed by that gap filler, and now the current brood continues to miss the sweet spot for change by aiming at the faulty components of the industry: its practitioners.
Striving to disrupt health care by replacing practitioners has been one of the significant missteps of digital health innovation, basing the approach on slogans like “axe the fax” or comparing to banking or military or, more recently, on Silicon Valley’s displacements in other industries. Health care practitioners are not middlemen who can be disrupted away and citizens are not as stupid as the ADHA would have us believe.
"Yet again, they’ve ignored the healthcare institutional infrastructure issues that confront the people who deliver care — doctors, nurses, assistants, and others — or in repeated succession, tried to replace their function altogether. The results have been only small gains and more considerable scepticism, and as Andrew states, hampers the software industry."
ReplyDeleteExactly.
The federal government doesn't understand health care because it doesn't deliver it - the states do.
That's why they have made an enormous mess of things like MyHR, the vaccine acquisition and rollout, Aged Care, NDIS etc, etc. And then there's Climate Change another vacuum of knowledge and expertise.
It's called hubris.
It's like trying to explain the colour green to a blind person.
In fact it's worse than that - there's non so blind as those who will not see.