AHPA strongly supports the aim of the Australian Government’s proposed Primary Health Care 10 Year Plan to maintain and strengthen our world-class primary health care system in order to deliver the best possible health outcomes for all Australians. We agree that significant reforms are urgently required to achieve a truly equitable primary health care system. The value and breadth of allied health needs to be fully recognised rather than being relegated to the periphery while general practitioners remain at the centre of the system. Allied health services are key to a genuinely integrated system that is person-centred, relies on multidisciplinary collaboration, and intervenes early to prevent or ameliorate health consequences and costs.
We illustrate the submission with diverse examples of allied health provision and make recommendations to remove current structural barriers and change inappropriate funding models.