Primary care is the foundation of our health care system, and successful health reform will depend on effective engagement with the primary care workforce
Over the months that followed its election on 24 November 2007, the Rudd Labor Government proceeded to deliver on the series of health care commitments it had made during the election campaign.1 Australia saw the establishment of a National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NHHRC)2 and taskforces to develop a National Primary Health Care Strategy3 and a National Preventative Health Strategy,4 the latter of which will in the first instance focus on influencing major reductions in the diseases caused by obesity, tobacco and alcohol.5 The success of each of these reforms is dependent on effective engagement with Australian general practice.
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Thanks to Professor Deborah Saltman, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal and Mr Rob Wilson for their advice during the preparation of this manuscript.
I chair the Australian Government’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on Blood Borne Viruses and Sexually Transmissible Infections and am a member of the Australian Government’s Medical Training Review Panel. I have served as chair or as a member of past Australian Government committees, councils and boards. I am a past president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and a current member of the Executive of the Australian Health Care Reform Alliance.