Business View Oceania - June 2023

8 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 5, ISSUE 6 primary health care and practices. Announced in the recent Federal Budget, the MyMedicare program, introduces a voluntary patient registration option for patients that aims to promote continuity of care that will better meet patients’ needs. ‘While the potential for this reform to improve equity of access has been acknowledged, it is not yet well understood,’ says Ms Woolcock. ‘Marginalised groups in Australia often experience health inequity and understanding the holistic needs of populations as part of MyMedicare will be critical to driving improvements in the health outcomes of all Australians. ‘In principle, voluntary patient registration will support primary care to provide more integrated, timely, continuous, and coordinated care but in practice, how this will best support universal access to care is unknown.’ What we do know is that this will require collaboration across the health system, bringing a shared purpose and culture across multiple disciplines – clinical, financial, operational, management and informatics. Together we must provide greater accountability to improve access for those patients with the greatest needs. The 2023 Deeble Institute Fellowship is supported by Capital Health Network, the ACT’s Primary Health Network. Source, Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, First Published, May 31, 2023