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 outlines College feedback to the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority’s (IHACPA) annual consultation on the Pricing Framework for Australian Public Hospital Services 2025-26. This submission addresses the unaccounted costs of admitted and non-admitted care, cost impacts of patient vulnerability and complexity, especially in mental health care, and the ongoing impacts of COVID-19. It also describes the importance of service integration and incentivisation of innovative models of care.
Topic
Child health and young adult medicine
Description
This RACP submission, led by PCHD, outlines feedback to the National Mental Health Commission on the draft National Guidelines for including mental health and wellbeing in Early Childhood Health Checks. The National Guidelines aim to support states and territories to implement nationally consistent mental health and wellbeing checks as part of the early childhood health checks for children aged 0-5 years, and provide children and families with early help and support. The inclusion of mental health and wellbeing in the National Guidelines is built on the knowledge that the first 2000 days of a child’s life are critical to their long-term thriving.
Description
This submission outlines the RACP feedback to the Department of Health and Aged Care on the “Towards Australia’s National Immunisation Strategy 2025-2030” consultation paper. The National Immunisation Strategy aims to outline a shared mission to protect Australians from the harms of vaccine-preventable diseases and focus national efforts to form a roadmap for national action on key priorities in immunisation in Australia. This submission is based on existing RACP work and member feedback on the six priority areas of the Strategy.
Description
The Australian Department of Health and Aged Care invited the RACP to provide feedback on the draft National HIV Strategy 2024-2030 as part of a targeted consultation process. This submission outlines the College’s feedback on the draft strategy, including key elements highlighted by the Australasian Chapter of Sexual Health Medicine, that support efforts to reach zero HIV transmission in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
Description
This RACP brief was submitted to the team leading the Unleashing the Potential of our Workforce Scope of Practice Review to inform Phase 3 of the Review. It provides an overview of the role of physicians and paediatricians in the Australian Government’s primary care reform and the delivery of high quality multi-disciplinary care in collaboration with general practitioners and allied health professionals.
Description
This RACP submission outlines the College’s feedback to the Department of Social Services on the draft National Autism Strategy, which aims to help advance outcomes of autistic people and initiate a more coordinated, national approach to supporting the autistic community across Australia. This submission is based on existing College positions on Autism and member feedback.
Description
This submission is in response to the Medical Council of New Zealand's consultation on their draft statement Treating yourself and those close to you. The statement is intended to help doctors understand why, in most situations, they should not treat themselves or those with whom they have a close relationship. The submission responds to specific consultation questions. Key points raised in the submission include emphasising the importance of good consultation with those working in rural communities where alternative care options may be unavailable, and to consider broadening to definition of "exceptional circumstance" to consider the many reasons why Māori whānau and communities find themselves isolated and/or with reduced options for care.
Description
The NDIS Review final report ‘Working Together to Deliver the NDIS’ contains 26 recommendations to the Australian Government to improve the NDIS and the lives of people with disabilities. Half (13) of the 26 recommendations directly or indirectly address health-related issues. Comparisons between the NDIS final report recommendations and those made by the RACP regarding the NDIS since 2020 have been tabulated regarding improving the health system and ensuring that people with disabilities have equal access to health services.
Description
In September 2023, the Royal Commission into the Violence, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability published its final report. Comparison with the RACP 2021 submission to the Disability Royal Commission noted that out of our 35 recommendations, approximately half (no=17) were incorporated into the Disability Royal Commission's final report. This report has been developed to detail the inclusion of the RACP recommendations as they appear in the Disability Royal Commission’s final report.
Note: In October 2023, the NDIS Review final report, ‘Working Together to Deliver the NDIS’, was published. This report has since addressed 6 further RACP recommendations that were not taken up by the Disability Royal Commission’s final report. These recommendations include the need for the Independent Hospital and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA) to provide a pricing framework for the NDIS, the development of a system for collaboration between the health system and disability sectors, strengthening of safeguard mechanisms for NDIS participants, a proposal for a navigation support role for people with disabilities, the transitioning of responsibility for appropriate accommodation options to the IHACPA, and support for outreach services for people with disabilities in rural and regional areas.
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.
