Pre-Budget Submission to the Australian Treasurer – Health and Medical Research

This pre-budget submission to the Australian Treasurer for the 2016–17 Budget welcomes the Government’s focus on science and innovation under the National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA), the passage of the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) legislation and the announcement of the Biomedical Translation Fund. Citing Research Australia’s 2015 polling, in which 81% of respondents rated increased Government funding for health and medical research as important, it maintains that with health expenditure of $150 billion a year even small efficiency gains would pay dividends. Drawing on the McKeon Review, the Australian Atlas of Healthcare Variation and the CareTrack study, it contends that variation in practice and slow adoption of best practice reflect a lack of capacity for innovation in the health system. Its 11 recommendations include embedding research training in health qualifications; more health services and implementation research; career structures and research ‘buy-outs’ so clinicians and General Practitioners can do research; expanding the mandate of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care to include efficiency; promoting health innovation through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG); assessing agencies’ capacity to provide and link data, with free or subsidised access for publicly funded researchers; linking Commonwealth, State and hospital databases; ceasing attempts to cut the R&D Tax Incentive; adopting the Australian Innovation and Manufacturing Incentive; and maintaining NHMRC and Australian Research Council grant funding in real terms.