CHF Board, from left: Tony Lawson, Jo Watson, Christine Walker, Jan Donovan, Rowan Cockerell, Ros Chataway (absent: Allison Willis and Darryl O’Donnell)

Consumers Health Forum is delighted to welcome Adjunct Professor Darryl O’Donnell as the newest Director on the CHF Board. He was elected at the Annual General Meeting on Tues 24^th  October 2023.

Professor O’Donnell is CEO of Health Equity Matters, the national federation for the HIV community response, and Adjunct Professor with the Faculty of Medicine and Kirby Institute at the University of NSW. He brings a wealth of experience in health leadership roles in government and community settings at state, national and regional levels.

We are also delighted to announce that Directors Dr Christine Walker and Ms Rowan Cockerell were re-elected for another term.

Following on from the ‘Introducing MyMedicare’ webinar on 28 September 2023, CHF convened a roundtable to gather insight into consumers’ initial views of and experiences with the newly launched MyMedicare program. This was part of the Strengthening Medicare reforms program the Department of Health and Aged Care (DOHAC) has funded.

At the roundtable consumers were asked to consider various benefits and barriers, how they thought MyMedicare might change consumer experiences and behaviours, what supports are needed, and how and where consumers receive their health information.

These insights will be used by CHF to shape our activities and advocacy as MyMedicare is implemented and will be used by DOHAC as part of their MyMedicare Change Management Strategy to monitor, develop and support implementation.

Thank you to the consumers who took part in the roundtable for your time and valuable contributions.

Consumers from NSW are invited to apply to join the Agency for Clinical Innovation Consumer Advisory Group. As a consumer or carer member of this committee you will be able to share your lived experience accessing the NSW health system

Emerge Australia empowers people with ME/CFS and Long COVID to manage their symptoms and access other supports they need.

This is achieved through providing patient support services including telehealth support and up-to-date and evidence-based information for patients and caregivers.

One in three people in Australia are likely to be affected by liver disease in their lifetime. It causes one of the greatest health burdens in our country and receives very little publicity, funding, research or support. 

The Liver Foundation promotes liver health and raises awareness and early detection of liver disease.

Last week,we held our annual Member’s Policy Forum. We discussed how community pharmacies are changing and shared early findings from our recent consumer pharmacy survey. We heard from three speakers:

• Angela Brown, Consumer Advocate
• Dr Fei Sim, National President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia
• Peter Bearden, Health Program Director at the Grattan Institute

Angela highlighted that local pharmacies offer more than medication. They're a place to connect with your community and get health advice. Dr Sim agreed with the importance of pharmacists in our communities. She said there should be funding to help pharmacists reduce out-of-pocket costs for consumers. Peter pointed out the value in expanding the role of pharmacists and better integration with the wider healthcare system.

We'll be continuing this conversation in the coming months and sharing our full consumer pharmacy survey findings with you once the work on analysis has been completed.

This year has set CHF on an exciting trajectory as we work towards achieving safe, good quality, timely healthcare for all Australians, supported by the best health information and systems the country can afford.

Securing sustainable funding in May 2023 was the result of an effective pre-Budget campaign that saw more than 6,000 Australians sign a petition asking the newly elected Albanese Government to listen to the voice of health consumers. 

With this new funding over four years, CHF will be able to better engage with our members, key stakeholders and consumers before decisions are made. We will also aim to get grassroots feedback on the implementation of new services or policies that will feed into evaluation, and hopefully, continual improvement.

CHF presented the Annual Report at the CHF activities during the year.