Directions for Health Policy - NSW Synod 2002 (765.2 kb)

 Submission on Fit for the Future: NSW Department of Health Strategic Directions to 2025 (219.0 kb)
"We strongly welcome the emphasis on prevention, early intervention and primary health care, and the need for additional funding in these areas. We look forward to these areas receiving a substantially higher allocation of funding in future health budgets than they have in the past..."

 Finding Direction for Health Policy, a discussion document (301.7 kb)
In Australia we have an excellent medical and hospital system. Australia also does well on international comparisons of levels of population health. We provide a high level of care for people whether people have acute, chronic or terminal illness. But our system is under increasing pressure. We expect it to deliver more and more. We expect the most up to date treatments, and high technology treatments. There is often an assumption that a nation should meet all the demands put on the health care system, no matter what the costs. International statistics suggest that this is not appropriate. Once a certain level of expenditure is reached, increases do not always lead to improved health. the richest nation in the world, the nation that spends the highest proportion of its GDP on health care, the USA, has only mediocre population health, and has 40 million people without any health insurance (private or public). A number of nations with much lower expenditure on treatment have much better population health.

 House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs - Inquiry into Indigenous Health (281.7 kb)
Good health cannot be 'delivered' to our communities; it must be grown up and sustained from within, nothing else will work. Community planning which genuinely reflects the considered views of the community members is required to carry forward an inclusive approach to health specific to the actual circumstances, needs and aspirations of individual communities. (Social Justice Commissioner Second Report p 103)

 Submission to NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Mental Health in 2002 (249.8 kb)
UnitingCare supports the historical process of deinstitutionalization of care for people with mental health issues. It affirms that all people should have the fullest opportunity to realize their potential as human beings and participate as citizens in wider society. Where people need care, that care should be provided on a least restrictive basis. Our focus as a society should be on promoting emotional well-being, not on stigmatising illness.

 Submission to Senate Select Committee on Medicare 2003 (166.2 kb)

 Submission to Senate Select Committee on Mental Health (136.2 kb)

 Synod 2003 Medicare resolution (48.9 kb)

 Background to Synod 2003 Medicare resolution (79.9 kb)

 toopoortobesick (238.1 kb)

 Submission on University of Western Sydney Medical School (49.0 kb)