The Health Care Consumers’ Association (HCCA) develops policies and contributes to health policy discussions in a number of ways. Below is our policy response development process:
HCCA Policy Response Development Process PDF
High priority policy areas are set in HCCA Strategic Planning processes undertaken by the Executive Committee every 4 years in consultation with members. The current plan is for 2018-2021. The priority policy areas for this period are:
- Quality and safety of health services
- Primary health care
- Self-management of chronic conditions
- Health of older people
- Out of pocket cost of health care for consumers
The Health Policy Steering Committee is an operational Committee that reports to the Executive Director. Its role is to provide oversight and advice in relation to HCCA policy submissions and position statements and evaluate the quality of our policy work.
We aim for all HCCA health issues policies to be:
- Evidence-based
- Inclusive of the diversity of consumer views
- To provide policy leadership and a strong “consumer perspective” in relevant public policy debates
- With oversight from our membership through representation on the Health Policy Steering Committee
- High quality, measured by an evaluation framework for ensuring the quality of HCCA policy development outputs is developed and modified
Please see our Submissions and Publications page to see our latest Policy Submissions and work.
Through our policy work we advocate for a consumer – centred health care system that focuses on enabling equity in health and ensuring access to high quality health care for people in the ACT and surrounding region. Through this work we work closely with individuals, groups, service providers and government to ensure that we all participate in creating systemic change and that we achieve better outcomes through consumer empowerment.
HCCA has Consumer Reference Groups in a number of areas that are of interest to our membership and networks. These are: eHealth, Health of Older People, Quality and Safety and Maternity and previously in cancer issues.
HCCA Consumer Reference Groups (CRGs) bring together members, consumer representatives and nominees from support groups and health service organisations with a view to informing ACT Government, the Capital Health Network and health services about the needs of specific consumer groups in the ACT. These groups are open to anyone to join! We encourage you to attend. The aim is to enhance the overall consumer voice in the shaping of health services affecting them, and to ensure that future health strategies and policies are in fact consumer driven.
Last updated: 30/9/2018