Revista de Enfermagem e Cuidados com o Paciente

Patient Advocacy: Understanding the Australian Public Healthcare System

Anne Crawford

The Australian Public Healthcare system today is complex and fragmented. There are access issues for patients, particularly those with special needs and low literacy slevels. The providers of services have a tendency to work in isolation (silos). There is also a lot of confusion between the public and private systems. When using the public system there are potentially extra costs that the patient is not aware of and overall there are feelings of ‘disempowerment, frustration and disengagement’. Notices that state “aggression and abusive behaviour will not be tolerated” have become prominent across most facilities.