A Vision for 'One Healthcare System'

My Key Takeaways from the 2025 Canberra Summit

This week, I had the privilege of attending the 'Towards One Healthcare System Summit 2025' in Canberra - a vital gathering that left me both energised and concerned about the future of Australian healthcare.

Hosted by Wild Health Summits, this two-day event brought together government officials, major system vendors, primary care organisations, health practitioners across medicine, allied health and nursing, plus consumer advocates. There was genuine energy in the room, driven by shared recognition that Australia's current federated system, while robust in many aspects, is drowning in "wicked complexity" and fragmentation within and between health systems and levels of government.

The ambition was clear: move beyond rhetoric and take tangible steps toward a more integrated, efficient, and patient-centric Australian healthcare system.

From "Health System" to "Care System"

One striking insight from the opening panel resonated deeply: the call for our system to be a "care system" rather than solely a "health system." This shift emphasises prevention, consumer ownership and engagement, and holistic support - exemplified by integrated health hubs in many Aboriginal communities.

But here's the governance challenge this creates: Are our current structures enabling truly integrated care plans that connect patients seamlessly to the right services, or are they simply creating more barriers?

From my perspective across corporate, health and IT governance, the summit underscored that achieving this integrated vision hinges critically on robust and adaptive governance frameworks. How do we ensure clear accountability, seamless data flow, and ethical decision-making when dealing with disparate state and federal lines, influential players like the AMA and Pharmacy Guild, varied funding models, multiple providers, and a struggling independent consumer voice?

These aren't merely administrative questions but fundamental to patient safety, service quality, and equitable access.

The Reality Check: When Systems Fail Patients

My personal experience echoed the fragmentation discussed at the summit. Even simple tasks like accessing tax records or navigating MyHealth Record become a labyrinth of re-identification and never-ending loops. The frustration of not receiving a discharge notice by email - only via post or in-person collection - highlights pervasive lack of patient-centric design.

Thankfully, my discharge notice was in MyHealth Records, illustrating the potential, but also the inconsistent user experience. This isn't just an inconvenience. For many, especially those in rural areas or with limited digital literacy, these hurdles become significant barriers to essential care.

Don't get me started on being a consumer wanting to make a submission to the PBAC, follow the status of a review, or even getting a response from a complaint email. These examples demonstrate why I've called out publicly that many federal government consumer-facing systems are nowhere near basic acceptability.

The Equity Challenge We're Not Addressing

Whilst the centrality of general practice was often at the core of panel discussions, the ability to have general practitioners in poor areas of cities remains a challenge, let alone in remote parts of NSW, NT or WA. While many 'city' folk see virtual healthcare as the answer, there's still immense benefit in long-term face-to-face primary care.

For me, the ultimate measure of success for any healthcare system is its ability to serve patients effectively and equitably, particularly those on the margins, regardless of location, wealth, social status, or the nature of their illnesses.

Australia won't succeed by creating a monolithic system, but rather by fostering a cohesive "one health ecosystem" where consistency and collaboration are foundational cornerstones.

What Governance Leaders Must Demand

Moving "Towards One Healthcare System," we must focus on practical, achievable solutions that bridge these gaps. For governance professionals, this means advocating for:

Standardised approaches to information sharing and interoperability, moving towards "sharing by default."

Collaborative governance models that overcome state/federal divides and integrate the public and private sectors.

Prioritising patient pathways in system design, ensuring technology serves the human experience.

As the first day came to an end with votes on prioritising short-term initiatives, it seemed that 'Prioritising Patient Pathways' once again slipped out of view. The journey is complex and lengthy - perhaps longer than necessary due to a lack of strong, effective leadership - but the imperative is clear.

The Bottom Line

We must design governance that prioritises the patient, ensuring our collective efforts genuinely lead to a more accessible, equitable, and integrated healthcare future for all Australians. This means patients -or consumers, as they're called these days-must be a powerful and integral part of the governance process, not an afterthought.

The summit showed me that the vision exists, the technology is available, and the will is present. What's missing are governance structures brave enough to truly put patients at the centre, especially those who need our system most.

What do you believe is the single biggest governance hurdle to a truly integrated, patient-centric Australian healthcare system?

#HealthcareGovernance #OneHealthSystem #DigitalHealth #HealthcareReform #PatientCentricity #AustralianHealthcare

Sarah Barter Clare Mullen