Launch of the AML Alliance

Advocating for primary health care and working with Medicare Locals to innovate and to strengthen the quality, safety and accessibility of community-based patient care locally across the nation will be core business for Australia’s peak agency for Medicare Locals, the Australian Medicare Local Alliance (AML Alliance).

In launching the national body at Parliament House today, AML Alliance Chair, Dr Arn Sprogis said the AML Alliance’s formation along with the commencement of the third round of Medicare Locals on 1 July concludes the structural transformation of the primary health care system under National Health Reform.

The establishment of 61 agile, community and clinically-led Australian primary health care organisations to better and more regionally organise health so that it is more responsive to community needs is the most substantial reform since the introduction of Medicare.

“To finally have a Commonwealth Government take on full responsibility for general practice and primary health care means we have unprecedented opportunity to implement a system of care that is nationally led and locally delivered.

“This is a government that has recognised that boosting our primary health care system is the one thing we can do to improve health outcomes for the community. This is a government that has also recognised health improvements will come from the work of dedicated local experts through Medicare Locals – the people at the coalface of communities best placed to identify need, plan and develop local services not bureaucrats based in Canberra, Sydney or Melbourne.

“This is the unique feature about Medicare Locals – they are governed and run by appropriately skilled and local representatives who are on the pulse of their communities. Medicare Locals will have the resilience, capacity and ingenuity to be the centre-stage of health care reform, leading change and innovation in their communities.

“AML Alliance will dedicate itself to supporting them in that mission and to working with governments and other partners to create an environment where national policy and programs support Medicare Locals to optimise their value to clinicians and their impact on community health and wellbeing.

“This system for primary care is about shifting the service balance further away from hospitals and instead, bringing patients back to the community care they need that’s closer to home.

“International evidence has proven time and again that primary health care delivers more equitable benefits to communities, better health outcomes and is better value for the health dollar. The AML Alliance in conjunction with Medicare Locals will work to support clinicians, the allied health sector, non-government agencies and the plethora of health sector partnerships that will form and create a better locally-based health sector for Australia’s communities,” Dr Sprogis said.

For media interviews contact
Karen Warner Media and Communications Adviser
t 02 6228 0819 m 0438 179 520
e kwarner [at] amlalliance [dot] com [dot] au

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