Duelling Band-aids: Debating and Debunking Issues Affecting Primary Health Care to Achieve Deliverance for Australia's Health

Abstract

The constant pressure for growth on all areas of health spending is not matched by the country's capacity to pay. Despite a progressive shift to a primary health care approach that promotes health and wellbeing, illness prevention, healthy lifestyles, early detection, rehabilitation and public health strategies, not all segments of Australian society enjoy good health. In this paper, general indications of the health and wellbeing of Australians are described, and the health and wellbeing of two important population groups: rural and remote and Indigenous populations are discussed, providing a review of Australia's health system. Anomalies in the status of the health of Australians are apparent. Models of primary healthcare, individual health and urban health are compared with models of acute and institutional care, population health and rural health.