A Canadian expert on health leadership says aged care clients and consumers must be included in the health reform process.

Dr Don Philippon is visiting Australia as a guest of the Australian College of Health Services Executives and Mayfield Education.

The Professor of Health Policy and Management at the University of Alberta said the needs of patients and clients are often left out of reform discussions.

“A lot of people are recognising the need to involve consumers in health reform these days but when the government starts to look at reform and the professional groups get involved, they tend to downplay that side,” said Dr Philippon.

“They give lip service to the idea and when they set up the committees and write the reports, it comes back to the structural issues.”

The Canadian province of Saskatchewan is currently undertaking an initiative to review the health system from the patient’s perspective.

Dr Philippon said Australia should adopt a similar perspective as it carries out its own reform process. 

“We need more focus on health literacy, advocacy and navigation,” he said. “There are a lot of services out there but how you access them becomes very mind boggling. People end up bouncing from one service to another.”

“We also need more healthcare advocates who can assist people to navigate the system.

“Often under the current system that responsibility falls on the family members who don’t necessarily have the skills to do that.”

Dr Philippon said aged care services would benefit from a greater focus on health promotion and multidisciplinary care teams.