The Australian health care system is a highly functioning and accessible system based

on universal principles of access and equity.

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................3
Legal and ethical contribution through designed principle...............................................................3
The historical evolution and the current structure of Australian health care system........................4
Strength and weakness of healthcare system and the challenges in allocation of resources...........5
Current health policies and priorities in Australia.............................................................................5
Current issues in developing health care policies..............................................................................6
Social, Political and Economic Influences on Health Care System in Australia..................................6
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................................6
References.........................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
A country like Australia has got high functioning and prompt accessible systems that is
characteristic of perfect ‘Health system performance’ for the patients and their families. This
paper on the Australian health care system, thus explores effectiveness and conceptual bases
that are required to pertain the efficient systematic objectives to stimulate health care
approaches. The key objective adopted by the Australian healthcare system is the principle of
equity. It is imperative to incorporate various strengthening measures to develop common
understanding for promoting health care system across the country. In Australia, collected
revenues from taxation ensure further support to develop numerous pharmaceuticals policies
and Medicare schemes to build universal access to get medical treatment for underprivileged
(AHMAC, 2013). For most of the people in Australia, a general visit to a local practitioner is
the first step to get treatment. Therefore, the case of Mr Jones is taken into consideration to
get the exact systematic medical approaches to determine the legal as well ethical approaches
to solve the case.

Legal and ethical contribution through designed principle

In Australia, health law has got a collaborative perspective to enact positive efforts into the
system. Therefore, in the case of Mr Jones, it is reflected that his case is little complicated,
and medical practitioners are not able to find out the exact reason of his ailment. Moreover,
his only daughter, who is also the sole living member of the patient, is getting anxious of her
father’s distorting health condition. The problem does not end here, the case got worse when
Mr Jones requested the hospital staff to put his daughter out of his medical condition as she is
suffering from depression and anxiety. Hence, the question of ethics and law is required to
analyse for ensuring the disciplinary action of the hospital as per Australian healthcare
system. Therefore, the referred section needs to observe the legal and ethical approaches of
Australian health care system to support the next big step of the hospital nurse to judge the
plea of Mr Jones (Nicholson, 2012). It is the ‘general principle of health law’ that a patient is
the sole embodiment to decide on his required treatment, and so the authority must protect his
condition from his daughter due to her poor health condition. Here, in this case, the referred
patient is intellectually strong and can decide of his own, and so as per AIHW, the essential

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part of health care system is to provide self-reliance and spirit of confidence to absorb better
treatment (AIHW, 2008). Thus, the preference must be followed as a guideline from the
patient’s end to get effective and realistic cordiality.

The Australian health care system has many mainstream programs and one of them is
‘equity’ (Normanet al 2007). Irrespective of financial disability, the government has founded
this strategy to collect maximum fund to address healthcare need for the patients. In fact, the
entire system of Australian health system is a complex one, as it has got various departments
to observe, such as providers, web of services, organisational structures and recipients, still
the people get maximum help from this support.

The historical evolution and the current structure of Australian health care system
In a country like Australia the health care system mostly depends on the tax funding activities
while the medical care services are being performed through the nationalized insurance
scheme. In order to deliver the historical evolution of the highly functioning and accessible
health care system in Australia it can be asserted that most of the inhabitants of Australia only
visited the hospitals while they got sick or affected by any severe illness. Thus, in order to
deliver the clear conception regarding the health care system in Australia it can be said that
health care system is responsible to deliver, restore and maintain health of the inhabitants of
the society (Al and Welte, 2008). Thus, in accordance with the historical background of the
healthcare system in Australia it has been realized that in order to satisfy the current demand
of the health care, new functionalities and accessible system have been introduced. On the
other hand, in order to depict the current structure of the health care system the service
delivery model can be evaluated in order to acquire acute comprehension in this regard. Thus,
in relation to the service delivery model it can be said that Australia acquires a health service
system that works in accordance with funding, regulatory and management mechanism. Thus,
the servicers are being provided by the federal governments that help in delivering the
required services to the patients in accordance regulations and legislative frameworks set for
the health care system in Australia. Thus, the current structures of the health care system have
concentrated on developing new policies in order to employ the service delivery model in an
effective manner.

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Strength and weakness of healthcare system and the challenges in allocation of
resources
Though the current structure of the healthcare in Australia has been considered to be
effective, but instead of the fact there are certain strengths and weaknesses identified within
the entire structure. These aspects can be delivered in the following terms;

Strengths: the strength can be considered as the opportunities in the health care system in
Australia which is prominent in the contemporary scenario of health care. Thus, through the
reassessment of the health care system strength of health care in Australia can be enhanced
and the government has generated several health care policies that are also able to deliver
effective results in relation to the health funding and incentives (Arnold, 2007). On the other
hand, the risk assessing care involves the assessment of the primary and secondary risk in
relation to the patient’s health. Apart from this, the opportunities to introduce medical homes
have helped the health care system to develop more advanced technologies and practices.

Weakness: on the other hand, in relation to discuss the weakness the challenges faced by the
health care sector can be cited in this regard. The main challenges of demographic demand
and the changing patterns of diseases affects the effectiveness of the health care system in
Australia. On the other hand, increasing expanses in relation to the medical advances along
with issues in the medical supply chains can also be granted as weaknesses in this regard.

Along with this the discussion regarding the allocation of resources in the health care system
in Australia few things are important to identify the challenges in this regard. Thus, the
challenges occurred in form of government regulation and limitations in relation to allocation
resources in health care. Thus, in order deal with the challenge in resource allocation the
government has successfully generated several policies in Australia (Rubin, 2001).

Current health policies and priorities in Australia

As Australia is a country with mix cultural aspects and the health care system is dependent on
the policies and practices determined by the federal and state government. Therefore, in order
to depict the current health policies it can be said that the government of Australia has
concentrated on the national health care policies that are covered under the policies and on
the other hand, it also acquires temporary health insurance coverage for the people who stay
with visas in Australia (Coid, 2003). In relation to other facts the health policies have
encompasses health care insurance and confirmed services for the students who stay in

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Australia for the education purpose. Apart from this, in order to assert the priorities in health
care it can be said that the government of Australia has prioritise the tax incentives in the
context of health policies that individuals or families tend to opt or encourage the health
insurance policies in Australia (Dobbinson, 2006).

Current issues in developing health care policies

Among many issues in the health care system in Australia, issues in the workforce have been
identified as the most influential aspect as it may create difficulty in generating the
effectiveness in health care system. In this regard, as the workforce of any health care unit
beholds the importance in the context of delivering the services to the patients with efficiency
and quality, issues in this regard are prone to generate effective practices of the health care
policies (Rosa, 2011). Other issues can be identified in relation to governmental regulations,
opinion of the federal states that are accountable for the delivery of health care services in
Australia.

Social, Political and Economic Influences on Health Care System in Australia

The health care system in Australia is an instance of mix methods conducted by both the
government and the federal state; therefore, it is evident that influences of political, social,
and economical aspects could be identified in this regard. The political aspects in this regard
are that many big political parties have evidently exercised their influences on the fact of
health policy reformation. On the other hand, the economic influences are evident in terms of
cost consuming activities and huge amount of competitors’ financial resources (Duckett,
2008). Apart from this, in the case of social influences that are also evidently exercises its
affect on the health care system along with the changing demographic demands and pattern of
the fatal and other diseases.

Conclusion
In the context of the health care system the contribution of government and non government
organisations have been observed to be significant and effective while delivering quality
services to the patients. Thus, through the given case study it has been realized that the
functioning and accessible health care system in Australia. On the other hand, the legal and
ethical contribution through designed principle has contributed to the advancement of the
healthcare system in Australia. Therefore, in relation to the current health policies and
practices it has been realized that the health care system has developed certain new ideas to
serve the patients with effectiveness and quality services.

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References
AHMAC (Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council) 2013. Australian Health Ministers'
Advisory Council. Canberra: AHMAC. Viewed 13 August 2013.

AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) 2008. Review and evaluation of

Australian information about primary health care: a focus on general practice. Cat. no. HWI
103. Canberra: AIHW.

Al, M. and Welte, R. (2008). Mo1 Advantages And Disadvantages Of Markov Models
Versus Discrete Event Models For Simulating Patient Flows. Value in Health, 11(6), p.A346.

Arnold, J. (2007). Current developments in policies, priorities and personnel. Journal of

Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 80(1), pp.1-9.

Coid, D. (2003). Health Policy in Australia. Public Health, 117(5), p.377.

Dobbinson, S. (2006). Prevalence of health promotion policies in sports clubs in Victoria,

Australia. Health Promotion International, 21(2), pp.121-129.

Duckett, S. (2008). The Australian health care system: reform, repair or replace?. Australian
Health Review, 32(2), p.322.

Nicholson C 2012. Development of a framework for integrated primary/secondary health

care governance in Australia. Presentation at Australian Government Department of Health
and Ageing, 17 July 2012.

Norman GH, Zabinski MF, Adams MA, Rosenberg DE, Yaroch AL & Atienza AA 2007. A
review of health interventions for physical activity and dietary behaviour change. American
Journal of Preventive Medicine 22(4):336-45.

Rosa, D. (2011). Sustainability And Infrastructure Resource Allocation. Journal of Business

& Economics Research (JBER), 7(9).

Rubin, H. (2001). The advantages and disadvantages of process-based measures of health

care quality. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 13(6), pp.469-474.

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