Category: Blog

Health services are under pressure around the world – here’s how you can help in WA

Right now, health services are under pressure around the world. In this LinkedIn post an ED doctor in the UK shares his perspectives on why people might be experiencing long waits in Emergency Departments.

Need healthcare that can’t wait?

If you’re seeking healthcare which is unplanned but is not an emergency or life-threatening – and it can’t wait until you can get an appointment with a GP – there are a few options that don’t require you to sit for a long time in an Emergency Department:

  • Call HealthDirect or visit the website for advice and information 24/7 – this service has been significantly improved in recent years and includes the option to discuss your symptoms with a registered nurse.

 

  • Visit an Urgent Care Centre
    • There are two types of Urgent Care Centres in WA
      • Medicare Urgent Care Centres are free at the point of care – you can find your nearest online at https://www.health.gov.au/find-a-medicare-ucc or by calling HealthDirect on 1800 022 222
        • You may be able to walk-in, or need to make an appointment – check with the centre closest to you
      • Other urgent care centres – such as those provided by St John Health – provide urgent care without an appointment with a fee to be paid.
        • You will need to pay up-front but Medicare Card holders will get a Medicare rebate.
        • The up-front costs can range from $168 Monday to Friday to $310 on public holidays
        • The out of pocket costs (after the rebate) range from approx $125 Monday to Friday to $175 on public holidays
        • You can find your nearest online at https://www.health.gov.au/find-a-medicare-ucc or by calling HealthDirect on 1800 022 222

 

 

  • Emergency or life-threatening illnesses or injuries require immediate medical attention by an emergency department or hospital. For example, things like chest pain, breathing difficulties, severe burns, poisoning, loss of feeling, and seizures.

If you do need to attend an Emergency Department, you can get an idea of how long you might be waiting from the WA Health website showing up to date wait times at https://www.health.wa.gov.au/reports-and-publications/emergency-department-activity/data?report=ed_activity_now

Other ways you can play your part in reducing the need for hospital care

 

  • Maintain good health hygiene habits
    • if you’re unwell, reduce the chance of infecting others by staying home, wearing a mask if out in public, and wash your hands regularly
      • and in particular, take action to reduce the chance of infecting older people in your community or family
    • pay attention to air quality in homes and buildings

HCC’s advocacy in this area

At HCCWA we are actively advocating for the interests of health consumers including patients, carers and family members in relation to ensure affordable access to healthcare across primary, community and hospital settings. This includes providing input on the WA Government’s work in relation to virtual care, care for older people, and emergency access.

 

Executive Director update May 2025: the critical need for consumer voices

Navigating change: reflections on planning, learning, and the critical need for consumer voices

By Clare Mullen, Executive Director

May is a pivotal month in our calendar year at Health Consumers’ Council. It’s the time where we finalise our plans for the next financial year (which starts in July), which means also finalising our budgets. It’s always a challenge to match our ambition for the WA community and the health consumer community with the limited resources that we have available.

We have been fortunate in the last 12 months to have received some additional funding—small amounts of short-term additional funding from the Health Department and the Mental Health Commission. But our last opportunity for any significant change in our funding was in 2014 when the health system environment – and the scale of the issues faced by health consumers – were very different.

Despite these constraints, we’re excited about what we have planned for next year. We’re very much focused on building the data and the evidence that we need to make a strong case as we hope to negotiate future funding and demonstrate the impact of the work that we are doing. We’re also looking forward to rolling out the self-advocacy workshops and resources we’ve been developing over the last few months – and thanks to those of you who worked with us on those.

Conference season: learning and sharing insights

May is also a busy time because there are lots of conferences that take place around now. I was fortunate to have been invited to put forward consumer interests in several important forums.

Primary Health Alliance Conference, Melbourne

First up, I attended the Primary Health Alliance Conference in Melbourne, where there were many conversations about how to make primary care more accessible and affordable to more people in the community. And in particular, how to enable more people to be able to access multidisciplinary care in a GP practice. I came away from that event thinking about our role in helping to build consumer and community understanding of some of the funding reforms that are needed. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next with that.

Australian Centre For Value Based Healthcare Congress

Next, I had the chance to facilitate a panel discussion at the Australian Centre For Value Based Healthcare Conference, where we heard from one example of a co-design project that one of the consumer participants described as the best co-design project she had ever been involved with!

We also heard from New South Wales Health, where I learned about some of the data they’ve collected through their patient reported experience measures (PREMs) and patient reported outcome measures (PROMs). This has demonstrated the link that if you get the experience right for people, that can impact positively on the outcomes for people, which also impacts positively on the cost of care. This is really the essence of value-based healthcare: improving experiences, improving outcomes, and improving value for money.

You can read about some of the NSW work – including the link between dissatisfaction with food and health outcomes – here: https://www.bhi.nsw.gov.au/About_BHI/Blog/growing-evidence-on-the-link-between-patients-experiences-and-outcomes

A group shot of 5 women in front of a pull up banner

L-R: Alison Coughlan Health Consumers Centre Vic; Anne-Marie Liddy, Chair, Health Consumers Qld; Clare Mullen, HCCWA; Susannah Morris, Consumer Leader from WA; Jessica Lamb and Kathryn Briant from Health Care Consumers Association ACT

It was also a great opportunity to connect with other consumer advocates and leaders including colleagues from Victoria, Queensland and the ACT.

At Health Consumers’ Council, we’ll be doing more work on value-based healthcare because it’s a really important concept for people who are involved as consumer representatives  – particularly those at executive level and above. It’s one of the ways that we can use the work that’s being done on PROMs and PREMs in Western Australia to drive better experiences and better outcomes.

Thank you to the Australian Centre for Value-Based Healthcare for funding my travel and accommodation to enable me to participate in this and the primary care event.

Ageing Australia Conference

This week, I was invited to be part of a panel at the Ageing Australia Conference in Perth. Many of you will know that the aged care sector is going through significant reform with the implementation of the new Aged Care Act, with elements of that coming into play from 1st July 2025.

The new Aged Care Act is being billed as a rights-based act and so I highlighted the importance of making sure that, in a rights-based context, attention is paid to addressing the power imbalance that can exist between service providers and the people who use their services. This includes issues of equity and making sure that in the hurry to implement things by a certain timeframe, the needs of people who may not come from the dominant paradigm are also considered. I also highlighted the importance of independent advocacy and information from organisations who have the interest of consumers, residents, and clients at heart, including our partners at Advocare and COTA WA.

You can read more about the panel discussion in this LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ageingaustralia_the-transition-to-the-new-aged-care-act-panel-activity-7332769192443580416-Hvrl

National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards – towards the next edition

The first edition of the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards was launched with the second edition coming in 2021. To inform the third edition the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care hosted a meeting with the state/territory and national consumer peak organisations this month. It was a wide ranging discussion covering the whole spectrum of issues consumers face. In particular, I raised the issue of strengthening the standards to address racism in healthcare, as well as ensuring that the standards account for people’s experience as they transfer between different elements of the system.

A group image with 12 people in the room and one person on the screen.

L-R: Alison Coughlan, Vic Health Consumers Centre; Kate Gorman, Health Care Consumers Assn ACT; Clare Mullen, HCCWA; on screen Ellen MacDonald, Health Consumers Tasmania; Anna Flynn, Director Partnering with Consumers, ACSQHC; Naomi Poole, Naomi Poole, Executive Director Strategy and Innovation, ACSQHC; Elizabeth Deveny, CHF; seated Broni Smith, Program Manager, Partnering with Consumers, ACSQHC; Anthony Brown, Health Consumers NSW; Anna Thornton, Chief Nursing Officer, ACSQHC; Gillian Giles, Director Clinical Governance, ACSQHC; Joanne Taylor, Program Manager Comprehensive Care; Keith Tracey-Patte, Health Consumers Queensland

 

A system in transformation

There are changes happening in primary care, in hospital care, and in private care. At the same time, as I’ve said there is significant change happening in the disability sector as well as the aged care sector.

There are many wonderful people working in health services, in aged care and in disability services, and many of them very much have the interest of consumers in mind. But no one experiences the system as a whole other than the consumers who are trying to navigate the complexity of those various systems and how they interact – or don’t!

Never has it been more important that there are confident, connected, informed consumer representatives who are able and feel supported to speak up for the rights of consumers, carers, community members, and people with lived experience, in every room where ideas are being discussed, and decisions are being made that impact on the experiences and outcomes that people will have.

A Call to Action

If you have been thinking about whether or not you might want to draw on your lived experience or become involved as a consumer representative, I urge you to think about it now. Now is the time.

It is imperative that we have strong, confident people in the community who are coming from an informed and supportive consumer movement —where people draw on their own experience and can also put forward a broad consumer perspective. We need to be in every room where discussions are happening.

Systemic advocacy: protecting consumer rights

Consumer rights in dental care

This month has also been very busy on the systemic advocacy front. Some of you have seen the news items from The West Australian about consumers who have been left out of pocket and without dental care: https://thewest.com.au/news/health/patients-of-perth-dental-rooms-dentist-david-hurst-left-in-financial-limbo-and-pain-after-practice-collapses-c-18454547

Unfortunately, what the stories have highlighted is that there are many gaps in the system that is supposed to protect us as we access dental care. Many people are facing aggressive marketing tactics from dental companies who are encouraging people to access their superannuation in order to have dental treatment. It’s not clear whether or not people understand all of the implications of that, both for their future financial security but also for the day-to-day reality—for example, having to pay tax on super accessed early.

I will be meeting with WA’s Chief Dental Officer and the head of the Australian Dental Board next week to discuss this, and we’ll be putting forward our concerns to make sure that the loopholes that seem to be undermine the rights that patients and consumers have are closed. We want to ensure that consumers can be making informed choices in the confidence that the system that is there to protect them is working as it should.

We have a survey for people who might want to share their stories, and you can find that here: https://forms.office.com/r/WttmCBkJUd

Hospital Parking: A Barrier to Care

On another front, we had the opportunity to take part in an ABC Life Matters conversation this month talking about the impact of the high cost of parking at some public hospitals. We heard about the economic argument that there is evidence showing that if family and friends are able to spend time with their loved ones while in hospital, this can help the healing process and in some cases help people get home sooner.

In Western Australia, we put a call out to our networks to understand the impact of hospital parking costs, and we know that today, right now, there are people taking out payday loans in order to access essential healthcare, including attending emergency departments.

There have been many attempts in the past to raise the issue of parking costs, and to date, those have been largely unsuccessful. There are some concessions that are available, and you can see what we have been able to find out about those on our website. But by and large, the cost of hospital parking is still a barrier to care for many people.

The reason that we are taking up this issue again is that having spent a state election period hearing about how we are the state with the strongest economy in Australia we think that the stark contrast between that and the reality of people trying to access healthcare is really quite stark.

We’ve raised this already with the new health ministerial team, and we also reiterated it in our budget paper that we submitted to the ministers last week. Again, we have a survey inviting people to share information about their parking experiences. We won’t share any details that identify anyone, but as we know, lived experience stories can change minds and hearts. So please, if you have a story to share, please do—here’s the link: https://forms.office.com/r/NFq9WhFcKM

Advocacy in Action: Meeting Growing Community Need

Finally, we have been very busy in both our engagement team and our individual advocacy team. What we identified is that in January to March 2025, compared to January to March 2024, our individual advocacy team saw an increase in the number of priority cases that far exceeded 500 percent—more than a five-fold increase in the number of priority cases.

Every case is important, but for example, if you are in hospital right now and reaching out to an independent advocate might be able to help you in that particular situation, then we will do our best to support that person as quickly as possible.

As Health Consumers’ Council is the only state-based consumer organisation in Australia that provides independent individual health advocacy across the whole range of health issues—mental health, physical health, primary care, hospital care, private healthcare, and public healthcare (the only area that we don’t cover is involuntary mental health)—this increase is significant.

What is curious to me is why health advocacy is so poorly resourced compared to advocacy in the disability sector and advocacy in the aged care sector. Advocacy is much needed in any sector where public services, just by the way they exist, are difficult for people to navigate. You need people who understand those systems to walk alongside you and support you as you stand up for and defend your rights and seek redress when things have gone wrong.

A big piece of our advocacy is continuing to advocate for more access for the community to independent health advocacy across all areas of health.

Engagement and Innovation

In our engagement team, we have had a whole range of events take place this month. We gathered together consumer representatives from across the healthcare system to understand how Care Opinion is being used in their health service and what opportunities they saw as consumer reps for using it differently. We have a few ideas that have emerged from that, so watch this space. We’ll be hosting another conversation with that same group alongside the staff who work on Care Opinion later in the year.

This is thanks to a small amount of funding that we got from the Health Department to progress work in relation to Sustainable Health Review Recommendation 4, which relates to the objective of expanding the use of Care Opinion.

The other exciting news is that we are making progress to support the Health Department as they implement their safety and quality strategy. One of the strands in that work is looking at consumer leadership, and so we are initiating that work by hearing from consumers about their experience of consumer leadership. What does it mean to you? What can make it work really well, and what can get in the way of it? Again, we have a survey for that: https://forms.office.com/r/gjNuHJuNUy

Looking forward

If you’re still reading, then you’ll know it’s been a busy time. There are lots of opportunities for people to influence change in the system. If you have ideas for areas that we’re not across, we are a small team, but we will add it to the list of things and do what we can to support you in the community to make change for the good of health consumers, families, carers, and people with lived experience in the community.

Thank you to those of you who go above and beyond, who speak up, who draw on your own lived experience and your knowledge of the healthcare system to advocate for positive change. Never has it been more needed for us to have strong independent consumer partners to work alongside those change agents in the health system to bring about a transformed health and medical care system for the WA community.

Meet your HCCWA Team: Qistina Taufiq

Our team works hard for the people of WA, we’re passionate about making a difference in the lives of West Aussies and working hard to make patients, carers, loved ones – all health consumers – are at the centre of our healthcare system to make healthcare fair.

We’d like you to meet Qistina, our Cultural Diversity Engagement Officer

What inspired you to work at HCCWA?

The amazing passion and drive everyone have as a team to ensure a better health consumer experience. Reaching out to the community during my internship and learning a lot more about issues in public health made me inspired to work. I also like the nature of the work we do which is to be a voice for our health consumers and also help them navigate the complicated healthcare system.

Describe what you do at HCCWA

I work in the engagement team as the cultural diversity engagement officer where I attend networking meetings and events with multicultural organisations who have the same goal as us. I also reach out and connect to the community by going to events like university o days to talk to youths as well as set up booths to talk to members of the community and see how HCC can help in any way in terms of navigating the healthcare system.

What do you think about HCCWA and the work we do?

I think that HCCWA is a noble organisation who goes above and beyond to ensure they always make positive impacts to our health consumers. We all have the same goal which is to help consumers navigate healthcare and ensure a better health consumer experience for everyone.

How do you see your work helping to improve outcomes and experiences for everyone in WA?

I think that through my community engagement work, I get to listen in to what consumers have to say and try to help them accordingly. I do help to raise awareness about HCC so anyone who really needs help especially from the CaLD community who are having problems accessing healthcare to reach out to us. They may not know of what services are available and can help them in WA. Through community engagement as well, we could progressively get members of the community more involved as consumers and have a voice in the healthcare system as well.

Ever met anyone famous?

Think I met an actor during a networking event, met famous academics and ceos during my networking. Also met someone who her story was shared on the news about her passion for football due to her late brother.

Meet your HCCWA Team: Bronwyn Ife

Our team works hard for the people of WA, we’re passionate about making a difference in the lives of West Aussies and working hard to make patients, carers, loved ones – all health consumers – are at the centre of our healthcare system to make healthcare fair.

We’d like you to meet Bronwyn, our Systemic Advocacy and Engagement Lead

How long have you worked at HCCWA?

Since January 2025

What inspired you to work at HCCWA?

A meaningful workplace, where no two days are the same and a job that encourages me to use my qualifications and my passions for human rights, health equity, politics and and policy.

Describe what you do at HCCWA

I’m the systemic advocacy and engagement lead. So anything about wider health system issues beyond an individual complaint can cross my desk. I also monitor the political landscape to identify any emerging issues across the health sector that may impact consumers. I have a few big systemic projects on the go, and also undertake “one off” projects when we see patterns emerging from our individual advocacy cases. I also coordinate responses from HCC when giving feedback on government policies and strategies, always seeking to amplify consumer voices in all that we do.

What do you think about HCCWA and the work we do?

HCCWA, as the peak consumer body for the health sector, has a long and proud history of amplifying consumer voices, advocating for individual consumers, running engagement activities and being a critical friend in the health system. The work we do matters. I wouldn’t work here if it didn’t. From one of advocates giving helpful advice that changes the outcome for someone who needs support through the system, to our engagement team working closely with consumer representatives to ensure they are supported in representing consumers in the health system, we are making improvements in people’s lives every day.

How do you see your work helping to improve outcomes and experiences for everyone in WA?

My work may not have the same direct impact on one individual as the work of our individual advocates does, but I believe that my work contributes to making the whole health system better, by calling out injustice, by identifying broad, system-wide inequities and raising these with decision-makers. I bring my passion and energy

Ever met anyone famous?

Yep.

World immunisation week: are you up to date with your vaccinations? 

With colder weather approaching, a local measles outbreak that hasn’t yet gone away and COVID always on our minds, World Immunisation Week is a good time to check what vaccinations you might be needing. 

The World Health Organisation recognises World Immunisation Week to highlight the collective action needed to protect people against diseases. The theme for 2025 is “Immunisation for All is Humanly Possible” and celebrates that over the last 50 years, essential vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives, which is 6 lives a minute, every day, for five decades.  

It’s a good time to remember that vaccines aren’t just about saving lives of other people in other places, they save lives right here in our communities too. 

You might have read about the “quad-demic” experienced in the US over their winter, where there were higher than usual numbers of COVID, flu, RSV and norovirus circulating at the same time, leading to consumers being pretty unwell and a hospital system under considerable pressure. A reduction in the rate of flu vaccines and vaccine hesitancy around COVID vaccines has some experts concerned that we may see a similar experience in Australia this winter.  

The Department of Health issues a Virus Watch each week, and if you are interested in infectious diseases and how many of them are in our community at any given time, it is an interesting read. This year, Virus Watch has shown us that the flu is around in higher numbers than it usually is at this time of year, so it might be worth chatting to your doctor about the best time to schedule your annual flu shot.  

COVID vaccines are still available, with variant-specific vaccines being rolled out frequently. The best advice recommends:  

Adults over 18 WITHOUT immunocompromise who have NOT previously received a COVID vaccine.  Single primary dose 
Adults over 18 WITH immunocompromise who have NOT previously received a COVID vaccine Two primary doses 
Adults over 75 Recommended further doses every 6 months 
Adults 65-74 WITHOUT immunocompromise Recommended further doses every 12 months 
Adults 18-74 WITH immunocompromise  Recommended further doses every 12 months 
Adults 18-74 WITHOUT immunocompromise Can consider further doses every 12 months 

 You can get your COVID vaccine from pharmacies, but talk to your doctor about whether a COVID booster would be a good idea for you. 

The WA measles outbreak is well documented in the press, but for adults it can be unclear if you have received a measles vaccination, and how many you have received. The current recommendations are that measles vaccines should be given to  

  • children over 12 months of age
  • adolescents and adults born during or since 1966 who have not received 2 doses of measles-containing vaccine, particularly
  • healthcare workers
  • childhood educators and carers
  • people who work in long-term care facilities
  • people who work in correctional facilities
  • travellers 

For those born before 1966 it is widely assumed that they would have encountered measles naturally as a child and are therefore likely to have natural immunity.  

If you are unsure whether you have had measles or whether you have had two vaccines and are concerned about your immunity, blood testing can clarify your immune status. Talk to your GP.


Bronwyn Ife  |  Systemic Advocacy and Engagement Lead
For media enquiries: 0488 701 839

Federal Election 2025: Why Australia’s Health Future Depends on Your Vote

The Federal Election 2025 is fast approaching, and for Australians, we have been keeping an eye on the announcements from the major parties to see what they are saying about health – this is an important opportunity for healthcare system consumers like you and me to use our vote to shape the future of our healthcare system to make a stronger, fairer, and more accessible system for everyone.

Healthcare issues in the 2025 federal election are front and center. From bulk billing cuts to aged care reforms, Australians are asking critical questions:

  • How will Medicare evolve after the election?

  • Will rural and regional Australians finally gain better healthcare access?

  • What commitments will political parties make toward mental health funding and health equity?

Health election promises need to be about more than spending money on hospitals, although that is always welcome and necessary. It is important to look at investments in health in a way that makes a difference to people’s lives, even if they are not currently a patient in a hospital, because we all use the health system.  

At Health Consumers’ Council we want to see increased investment in primary care, increased investment in preventative health measures, a continued focus on improving the efficiency and capacity of  the hospital system and improved access to health care in the community. Women’s health has also been a priority this election, so we’re tracking that too.  

At the Health Consumers’ Council, we believe that a healthy society is the foundation of a thriving community. That’s why we’re urging everyone to look at the 2025 federal election through a health lens. We’ve had a look at what the major parties have said about each of our priority areas and we’ve summarised them for you, to help you decide what is important for you in health when you are going to vote:

Our Priority Labor Liberal/National Greens 
Increased investment in Primary Care 
  • $7.9 Billion in bulk billing incentives  
  •  Supporting training for 400 additional GP places so 2000 GPs enter training each year 
  •  Salary incentives for junior doctors to be GPs  
  •  400 nursing and midwifery scholarships 
  •  1800 MEDICARE telehealth service
  • $9 billion to strengthen medicare 
  • Grow the GP workforce through new incentive payments, entitlements and training support 
  • $195 billion to cover dental treatment under medicare 
  •  $21.5 billion to triple bulk billing incentives 
  •  $31.7 billion for 1000 new healthcare clinics where you can see a GP, dentist, nurse, Psychologist at no cost 
  •  $900 million in grants to encourage more GPs 
  •  Include free autism and ADHD diagnosis in medicare 
  •  Expand Chronic Disease Management Plan to remove service caps and increasing rebates
Increased focus on preventative health 
  • $1 billion mental health services  – includes 31 new and upgraded Medicare mental health services, 58 new, upgraded and expanded headspace services, 20 youth specialist care centres, 1200 training places for mental health professionals 
  •  $32 million men’s health program to break stigma around seeking help 
  •  8 new Perinatal mental health centres
  • Restore the number of Medicare-subsidised mental health sessions from 10 to 20
  • Support Australians to access suicide prevention services. 
  • Investing in medical research
  • Free mental health care by including mental health in medicare 
  • $400 million in grants to community mental health organisations to expand programs 
  • $180 million to create and implement and align a National Suicide Prevention Act 
  • $15 million to train mental health practitioners in gender affirmation, anti discrimination and cultural responsiveness 
  • $180 million for FAS-D diagnosis and treatment 
  • Pill testing and $786.2 million for 11 new safe injecting rooms  
  • $1.2 billion in resourcing the alcohol and other drug treatment sector
Access to care in the community 
  • Support regional health worker attraction, recruitment and retention initiatives
  • Continue support for the timely access to medicines through community pharmacies
  • Support regional health worker attraction, recruitment and retention initiatives
  • Continue support for the timely access to medicines through community pharmacies
  • $2 million to review telehealth capacity  
  • $750 million to Aboriginal Controlled Community Health Organisations for advancing Closing the Gap initiatives 
  • $2 million for a review into making Medicare and PBS available to imprisoned people
Women’s health 
  • Larger rebates for long acting reversible contraceptives 
  • Additional oral contraceptive pills on the PBS 
  • Menopause hormones added to PBS 
  • 11 new endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics  
  • Additional endometriosis treatments added to PBS
  • New endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics 
  • Specialist cancer nurses to support Australians with Ovarian Cancer
  • Deliver training for health professionals to address endometriosis, menopause and peri-menopause
  • Ensuring cheaper medicines and targeted healthcare for women.

Many of our allies in the health consumer and social services sector have published what they are seeking in the election, and we’ve summarised some of these here for you. 

Carers WA

  • Cost of living support for carers – increase Carer allowance by 15% and a one off boost of $300 to the Carer Supplement
  • Superannuation for carers
  • Expand the Young Carer Bursary
  • Expand the Carer Inclusive Workplace Initiative
  • Carer Recognition  – training professionals to identify and support carers from the beginning 

Consumers Health Forum

  • Increase Medicare bulk-billing incentives to encourage more practitioners to bulk bill, particularly in areas with low rates of bulk-billing and socio-economic disadvantage
  • Reform the Medicare Safety Net to ensure it is more effective in reducing costs
  • Introduce a system to ensure automatic application of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Safety Net pricing
  • Work towards universal affordable dental care and implement the next 10-year National Oral Health Plan
  • Support longer and more flexible specialist referrals, so consumers don’t have to keep going back to their GP
  • Allow other healthcare providers to refer patients to specialists where appropriate 

Australian Men’s Health forum

  • Fund Men’s health
  • Act on Male Suicide
  • Improve Boys Education
  • Support Aussie Dads 

Australian Women’s Health alliance

  • Affirm abortion as essential healthcare
  • ensuring the Medicare Benefits Schedule includes appropriate remuneration for healthcare providers to deliver affordable care
  • supporting workforce capacity building by working with medical and professional colleges providing sexual, reproductive and maternal healthcare training
  • ensuring public hospitals provide abortion care as part of standard, comprehensive reproductive health services
  • working with state and territory governments to implement all 36 recommendations from the Senate Inquiry into universal access to reproductive healthcare. 

Council on the Aging

  • Fund dental care for seniors
  • Review and increase rental assistance payments for seniors
  • Energy bill relief for pensioners
  • Affordable basic internet plans for seniors
  • Expand the lower-income super tax offset scheme (LISTO) to ensure those earning between $37,000 and $45,00 are included
  • Create innovative programs to help older women find affordable housing and improve their financial knowledge
  • Create a national plan that improves outcomes for an Ageing Australia and tackles ageism
  • Require businesses to accept cash payments and prohibit debit card fees
  • Create a peer-led training and support service for victims of online fraud and scams
  • Provide elder abuse prevention and support services – including for older women experiencing family violence
  • Ensure people requiring aged care services in their home don’t have to wait longer than 30 days for the support they need
  • Test a program that provides medical care at home to help older people avoid hospital stays 

Bronwyn Ife  |  Systemic Advocacy and Engagement Lead
For media enquiries: 0488 701 839

Highlighting consumer interests with the new WA ministerial team

Clare Mullen Executive Director Health COnsumers' Council WA

At Health Consumers’ Council (HCC), we believe that meaningful change in our health system requires active consumer involvement at every level of decision-making. Following the recent ministerial appointments, we’ve reached out to the new health leadership team to highlight key priorities identified by health consumers across Western Australia.

Our key advocacy priorities

Through our engagement with the WA health consumer community and our consumer lens on the health reform landscape, we’ve highlighted several critical issues:

Consumer involvement in decision-making

Across all our ministerial communications, we’ve emphasised the need to strengthen requirements for WA Health services to meaningfully involve consumers, families, and people with lived experience at every level of decision-making. We’ve highlighted the successful Consumer Lead roles within the Women’s and Babies Hospital project as a minimum standard for future projects of similar scale.

Healthcare affordability and equity

We’ve raised serious concerns about healthcare affordability, with evidence showing some community members are missing essential healthcare due to cost concerns, with some people resorting to taking out payday loans to access necessary care.

Aboriginal healthcare equity

We’ve drawn attention to Australia’s widest gap in hospital procedure rates between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal patients occurring right here in WA. We’re advocating for increased access to advocacy services for Aboriginal patients to strengthen their voices in healthcare settings.

Reducing avoidable harm

We’ve proposed practical steps to improve healthcare safety:

  • Mandating access to independent advocates for consumers and families involved in Severity Assessment Code Category 1 Clinical Incident Investigations
  • Embedding Care Opinion across the health system as a feedback and quality improvement mechanism

Preventative health investment

We’ve emphasised the potential of community-led health initiatives, highlighting the Compassionate Communities model in WA’s South West that achieved a remarkable 63% reduction in hospital admissions. We’re advocating for accelerated rollout of similar community-led approaches.

Medical Research and Citizen Science

We highlighted opportunities to strengthen consumer involvement in shaping research priorities. We’ve proposed investment in citizen science initiatives for health and health promotion, building on WA’s reputation as a leader in consumer involvement in research.

Aged care priorities

We’ve highlighted issues around:

  • Ensuring sufficient aged care capacity so people receive the right care in the right place
  • Taking action to eliminate stigma and discrimination in aged care services
  • Protecting the sexual safety and dignity of people with dementia

Prison Health Services

With Minister Papalia (Emergency Services, Corrective Services), we’ve reiterated the Sustainable Health Review Panel’s support for transferring custodial health services from the Department of Justice to the WA Health system to facilitate more integrated physical and mental healthcare.

Looking forward

These letters mark the beginning of what we anticipate will be a constructive dialogue with the new ministerial team. We’ve requested meetings with each minister to discuss these priorities in more detail and explore collaborative approaches to addressing them.

As is clear from the range of issues we’ve raised, the opportunities to improve health outcomes and experiences for everyone in WA are many and far-reaching. We welcome the expansion of the Ministerial team as recognition of the importance and scale of this work.

As ever, we welcome your thoughts and experiences on these issues. Please continue share your healthcare stories with us, as they strengthen our advocacy work and help identify emerging issues affecting health consumers across WA.

Clare Mullen, Executive Director

Health Budget – a win for women’s health

With the federal election called for 3 May, we’ll be tracking health promises made by all of the parties and letting you know what that means for WA healthcare system consumers.  

The federal government released their 2024-25 budget on Tuesday 25 March. Health is always a topic to watch at budget time and we’ve had a look at what was included in the 2025-26 budget.  

Women’s health was a big winner in the budget and we are really pleased to see women’s health being highlighted – an area that has been ignored or only spoken about obliquely for generations. There is a $792 million package for increased rebates and more bulk billing to increase safe access to long acting reversible contraceptives. A greater number of oral contraceptives have been added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, making these medications cheaper for people who need them. Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme listings for hormonal treatments for menopause, medicare rebates for menopause health assessments and menopause training for GPs are all welcome initiatives, as is increased funding for endometriosis treatment and support, making it easier for people to receive the health care that they need.  

The nearly $8 billion spend on Medicare has been covered in many places, but this is aimed at increasing bulk billing rates across the country by increasing incentives for GPs to bulk bill. The goal is for 90% of GP visits to be bulk billed by 2030. The incentives are greater in rural and remote areas, which is a good outcome for services outside of metro areas.  

There is also funding to open 50 new Medicare Urgent Care clinics across the country. There are currently 87 of these clinics, alongside some other Urgent Care clinics run by private providers. A recent review into the Medicare Urgent Care clinics has found that while the cost to the government of care at Medicare Urgent Care Clinics is higher than standard GP appointments, and that the communication from the Urgent Care Clinics back to the patient’s usual GP could be better, the waiting times in Urgent Care Clinics are considerably shorter than those in hospital emergency departments and they give patients greater choice when looking for care, particularly after hours. 

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme co payment is being reduced from $31.60 to $25 which is an important saving for people who regularly need medications. 

Bronwyn Ife  |  Systemic Advocacy and Engagement Lead
For media enquiries: 0488 701 839

Harmony Day is a missed opportunity

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

It’s also, Harmony Day

21 March 2025 is International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination it’s also Harmony Day 2025 in Australia.

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (IDERD) is recognised all around the world, except here in Australia where in the 1990s the Howard government chose to create an event called Harmony Day instead.

Harmony Day celebrates multiculturalism in Australia, which is a good thing.

But in doing so in place of addressing racial discrimination, it hides the history behind the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and discourages us from discussing the hard work required to tackle racism in Australia.

Here at Health Consumers’ Council we are committed to calling out and tackling racism in the health system. In 2019 we successfully advocated for the inclusion of racial discrimination as a category that’s measured in the WA health complaints system – along with other forms of discrimination such as ableism and ageism.  

We’re working on a project this year to highlight racism in health care by examining the issues that arise in our individual advocacy cases to see what patterns are emerging. We also use our strong relationships with health system leaders to elevate the voices of people who experience racial discrimination to the highest levels of decision making in health.  

If you have experienced or witnessed racism in WA healthcare settings you can call it out

  • Make a complaint to the health service concerned – draw attention to the fact that you believe the discrimination was based on race
  • Hospitals: https://www.hconc.org.au/individual-advocacy/how-to-make-a-complaint/
  • GPs: https://www.hconc.org.au/individual-advocacy/4-how-to-make-a-complaint-to-a-gp-or-clinic/
  • Call It Out is a simple and secure way for people to report incidents of racism and discrimination towards First Nations Peoples in any setting: https://callitout.com.au/

Bronwyn Ife  |  Systemic Advocacy and Engagement Lead
For media enquiries: 0488 701 839

Celebrating multiculturalism, inclusiveness and equitable participation in WA

This month, Qistina Taufiq, HCC’s Cultural Diversity Engagement Officer, and Clare Mullen, Executive Director, were privileged to be invited to celebrate the WA Multicultural Awards – a program run by the WA Office of Multicultural Interests.

This is because Health Consumers’ Council was recognised as a nominee in the category of Community Service and Support – General Community Service organisation. The evening was a wonderful celebration of the diversity, capability, resourcefulness and strength of people from a wide range of culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) backgrounds and the organisations that serve them.

HCC has had a targeted program of work aiming both to ensure people coming to Australia from other countries understand the WA health system and how to navigate it – as well as ensuring the voices of people from multicultural backgrounds are sought and listened to as decisions about health and healthcare are made – since 2011. Louise Ford joined the HCC team then and pioneered a program of workshops on Health Rights and Responsibilities for CaLD communities.

The program was expanded in 2015 to include HCC’s popular workshop on Supporting Cultural Diversity in Healthcare. This workshop is aimed at health service providers who want to develop their capability in ensuring health services are inclusive of people from all cultures. HCC is funded to run this workshop twice a year – and we also deliver it on a fee for service basis to a number of healthcare organisations.

In 2025, HCC will be finishing a project we’ve been working on with Cancer Council WA and the WA Department of Health to produce a range of information leaflets about cancer treatment for people from CaLD backgrounds. HCC’s role has been to support a consumer advisory group made up of people from a range of communities and cultures to inform the development and production of these resources.

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners of these important Awards.

A picture of a page from the Multicultural Awards showing Health Consumers' Council as a nominee