Primary care for those with chronic disease: do patients, professionals and general practices agree on its future role?

Ageing population and changing lifestyles mean that chronic disease is the leading cause of illness, death and disability across many developed nations.

In Australia chronic disease accounts for 90% of all deaths in 2011. Over recent years we have seen a focus on strengthening primary care to enable the prevention and management of chronic disease to occur in the community setting. In Western Australia primary health commissioners are working with health consumers, general practice and allied health professionals to inform the development of a Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) program  aimed at promoting and supporting general practice as the cornerstone of primary health care to deliver high quality services for those with chronic disease.

 This presentation will report on a study that is supporting WA commissioners in the design, development and evaluation of a CPC program. 

The early phase of the study involved exploring patient, general practices’ and allied health professional views and perceptions of current and potential service provision for people with chronic health conditions. The evidence generated from this early phase work is currently being used to inform the development of the CPC program. Current activity involves: working with general practice to in improving data quality and enhancing the quality of primary care data to inform clinical practice;  a navigator role to support patients and general practice navigation of the system; a co-coordinator and social worker role to support patients with broader non-clinical aspects of their lives that impact on health and wellbeing

About Professor Suzanne Robinson

Professor Suzanne Robinson is the Director of the Health Systems and Health Economics group at Curtin University, Western Australia and was previously based at the University of Birmingham, UK. Suzanne has been awarded competitive research grants from international and national funding agencies. She has been involved in leading health systems and health economics projects that have had major impact on government reform initiatives.  In Australia she has been successful in leading the WA Primary Health Alliance and Curtin Partnership aimed at undertaking translational research and evaluation activity in primary care commissioning in WA. She is also part of the successful academic and health sector consortium that secured over $200 million in industry and Federal Government funding to support research innovation in Digital Health in Australian, Suzanne is the co-lead for the WA arm of this consortia.  

In 2015 Suzanne awarded the Australasian College of Health Services Managers (ACHSM) Innovation and Excellence Award for her work in health systems research and capacity building. Suzanne is also elected committee member of the Health Services Research Association Australia and New Zealand, Australasian College of Health Services Management, International Society for Priority Setting and Co-Editor of the Journal of Health Organisation and Management.

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