Policy and Advocacy Library
The library is the culmination of the collaborative work of RACP members and comprises a comprehensive range of evidence-based, published RACP position statements, policies and submissions.
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Description
This RACP submission to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) discusses medicines shortages challenges and opportunities in Australia, identifying the key issues for specialists and their patients when a medicine shortage occurs, impacts for clinical care, practitioner workload and wellbeing. It proposes significant reforms to TGA processes for predicting, identifying, assessing and communicating medicines shortages; strategies to attract and retain international medicines supplies as well as strengthen local markets are also proposed, noting that the COVID-19 pandemic revealed significant limitations in our national capacity to rapidly source medications from the international supply chain and the continuing paucity of local supply chains.
Topic
Child health and young adult medicine
Description
This RACP Submission to the NSW Inquiry into improving access to early childhood health and development checks outlines five key recommendations responding to the Inquiries Terms of Reference. The recommendations include prioritising investment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health leadership, the expansion of models of care which support children in rural and remote communities to access health services, the importance of multidisciplinary teams for child assessments and initiatives that support access to quality early childhood education programs for all three-year-olds.
Description
The RACP and its Tasmanian Committee are committed to advocating for the development of policies that are based on evidence, informed by the knowledge and expertise of physicians, and that benefit the health of Tasmanians and the Tasmanian healthcare system.
Topic
Voluntary Assisted Dying
Description
The RACP prepared this submission in response to the Northern Territory Government’s community consultation process for developing a framework for Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD). Amongst those contributing to this submission, the RACP Northern Territory Committee represents Northern Territory physicians and trainees from a broad range of specialties on a range of educational, professional development and advocacy issues. These specialties include palliative medicine, geriatric medicine and medical oncology. This submission aligns with the RACP 2018 published Statement on Voluntary Assisted Dying and statement on Improving Care at the End of Life: Our Roles and Responsibilities.
Description
The RACP welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to the Queensland Parliament Youth Justice Reform Select Committee. The submission focuses on the need to involve paediatricians at service reform and service delivery levels; raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years; ensure children and young people are housed in purpose-designed facilities with suitable supports; provide health checks on entering the youth justice system; provide comprehensive paediatric assessment when clinically indicated; and the need to prioritise First Nations leadership, both at the system reform and the health service delivery levels for children in the Queensland criminal justice system.
Description
The Australian Department of Health and Aged Care has conducted two consultations as part of developing new legislation to improve the care of older persons. In September 2023, the RACP made a submission and in February 2024 subsequently prepared this second submission to the draft Exposure Bill. This RACP submission draws attention to the need to specifically refer to ‘health care’ for older people (as opposed to just ‘care’), as well as the right to timely access to appropriate health care and has recommended recognition of the importance of functional ability.
Description
The RACP’s advice on modelling the health impacts of climate change for the Australian Federal Treasury outlines the importance of including climate health impacts in modelling to provide a fuller picture of the economic impacts of climate change. Modelling must prioritise cultural safety and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, knowledge, and leadership. Further, it must include consideration of costs as well as cost savings related to health co-benefits of climate action. Our suggested focus areas for modelling include the costs of heat, bushfires, and bushfire smoke on population health and the costs of climate change on healthcare systems. Modelling the health costs of climate change and the health benefits of climate action is important as Australia implements its first National Health and Climate Strategy.
Description
This submission calls on the Australian Government's response to the Royal Commission’s final report to revisit the breadth of health-related challenges faced by individuals with disabilities, their families, and caregivers. This is needed to create a more comprehensive and integrated approach to providing healthcare, in line with the holistic attention that the Royal Commission’s recommendations have provided across other sectors such as education, employment, and housing.
Description
The RACP Transfer of Care Inquiry submission has been developed by the RACP Tasmanian Committee which represents Tasmania physicians and trainees on a range of educational, professional development and advocacy issues.
Emergency access and transfer of care delays of long-stay disability and aged care patients are serious issues facing the Tasmanian healthcare system. We need improved patient access and outcomes at a system level, not just better transfer metrics at one point in the system.
This submission has been informed by existing RACP policies and positions, and by the challenges and opportunities that physicians in Tasmania routinely observe in the course of their clinical and other duties.
