The role of consumer participation in Victorian Primary Care Partnerships

Abstract

In April 2000, the Victorian Department of Human Service (DHS) launched the Primary Care Partnerships (PCP) Strategy as a key element of a wider reform of the primary health sector. The PCP Strategy was designed to address perceived fragmentation within the primary health system and to achieve a better integrated system of health service delivery. From the start, consumer, carer and community participation has been integral to the aims, objectives and implementation of the PCP Strategy. This paper argues that the latest developments in the general policy and funding and reporting guidelines for the PCP Strategy have had flow-on effects in policy for consumer participation. The initial in-principle commitment and practical support given by the state government to PCPs to develop and implement consumer participation represented a commitment to consumer participation at the higher levels of the ladder of participation (Brager & Specht, 1969). Most recent policy directions, particularly the funding and reporting guidelines for PCPs - based on outcomes/impact measures - locate consumer participation at the lower levels of the ladder of participation. This paper provides an overview of the key DHS policy and strategic direction documents shaping consumer and community participation in PCPs, and critically analyses these documents against the ladder of participation.