Eleanor Jackson Bowers and Libby Kalucy, PHC RIS
During 2009, with three major reform strategies occurring and all their consultation documents, submissions and reports being publicly available, PHC RIS took the opportunity to establish what contribution primary health care (PHC) research and researchers have made to the Australian health reform effort. Using publicly available information on the websites of the three reform initiatives, we were able to show that of the 30 people nominated by the Minister of Health to take part in working groups, one third had published papers in the field of primary health care. Of the 70 authors of discussion and commissioned papers, 17% had a current PHC university appointment. PHC research organisations made 40 submissions to the three initiatives. Using a definition of primary health care research used by the Primary Health Care Research, Evaluation and Development (PHCRED) program, we identified approximately 12% of more than 8 000 references cited in submissions and commissioned papers as PHC research publications. Thirty four citations were for research carried out under the PHCRED program by the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute (APHCRI) and PHC RIS.
The National Primary Health Care Strategy final report accompanying the draft Strategy cited 26% of the submissions received. It cited 50% of submissions from consumer groups and 45% of submissions from research organisations, most of which (eight out of 10) were from PHC research organisations.
PHC researchers and research make a considerable contribution to the three reform initiatives and the study highlights the capacity of Australian PHC research to contribute to such policy initiatives. This could be enhanced by researchers understanding the relevance of their research to policy and reform questions, developing the skills to write a good submission, and using opportunities to contribute to submissions by credible organisations within their networks.
The Final Report is now available on the PHC RIS website: <www.phcris.org.au/activities/>
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