AHHA welcomes new national healthcare standards for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

‘We welcome the release of national healthcare standards that, for the first time, target safety and quality in services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’, Dr Chris Bourke, Strategic Programs Director of the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA) said today.

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care Australian has issued its second edition of the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards

‘For much too long Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have found health services unwelcoming, and even traumatic to the point where they will discharge themselves from hospital against medical advice’, Dr Bourke said.

‘We know that this occurs, even in serious coronary care cases, through our “Lighthouse” project aimed at improving cardiac care in hospitals for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients.

‘As with the Safety and Quality Commission’s new standards, our own AHHA Position Statement on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health advocates incorporation of cultural competency into national standards for healthcare, including assessing and reporting on racism in all its forms.

‘We also support the “cultural safety” concepts contained in the guide to the new Standards. This is where health professionals examine their own beliefs, behaviours and practices, as well as issues such as institutional racism, in ensuring that their services are perceived as safe—by the patient rather than the provider.

‘Finally, we fully support that the new Standards require health services to communicate with their local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to develop health service plans around their needs, and to report back through their boards on these actions and outcomes.

‘We are doing this already with our 18-hospital Lighthouse project—which we are delivering in partnership with the Heart Foundation.

‘But it’s still great that we now have a national approach with a specific set of standards applying to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healthcare’, Dr Bourke said.

 

For more information on the AHHA, see http://ahha.asn.au/.

The AHHA’s Position Statement on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health is at http://ahha.asn.au/sites/default/files/docs/policy-issue/ahha_position_statement_-_aboriginal_and_torres_strait_islander_health_1.pdf

The Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association is the national peak body for public and not-for-profit hospitals, community and primary healthcare services.

Media enquiries: Dr Chris Bourke, Strategic Programs Director, Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, 0418 869 443