Australia’s Primary Health Care 10 Year Plan 2022–2032: Response to the Consultation

This submission reproduces Research Australia’s responses to the electronic survey on the draft Primary Health Care 10 Year Plan 2022–2032, which was based on the Primary Health Reform Steering Group’s discussion paper. Research Australia endorses the Plan’s direction and maintains that each reform stream needs research built into its design, implementation and evaluation. Its central proposal is an Institute for Primary Health Care Translational Research and Innovation, modelled partly on the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) School for Primary Care Research, to lead a primary health care research agenda alongside the Plan’s proposed Primary Health Care Data Analytics Centre of Excellence. It recommends evaluation of telehealth and of linking telehealth to Voluntary Patient Registration (VPR), warning that this could exclude culturally and linguistically diverse, homeless, low-income and mentally ill people, and for research-led strategies to enrol hard-to-reach groups in VPR. It recommends research on multidisciplinary team care, Close the Gap measures, rural access, care for people at risk of poorer outcomes, and self-care combining wearables, early intervention and social prescribing, citing its polling showing people want practical health tips rather than more information. It recommends sustained investment in translational primary care research, with health economics and value-based care central, a research-aware and research-active primary care workforce across all disciplines, and patient involvement through citizen panels and co-design.