Issue 21
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Welcome back
Happy New Year. I hope you enjoyed the break and are suitably refreshed for an exciting year in the aged care industry.
The ageing population is already a key focus at the start of 2010 with the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, recently urging
Australians to respond to the challenges of an ageing population in an address to an Australia Day reception in Melbourne.
The Aged Care Association Australia's CEO, Rod Young was quoted as saying after the PM’s address that, “Failure to plan now for the
future impact of ageing will almost certainly mean reductions in health services, aged care services and social welfare. After spending
a century developing and evolving our health, aged and social welfare services, it would be a social catastrophe to see these diminish
or decline due to lack of strategic policy reform to address the impending social impact of an ageing population.”
The work NeHTA is doing in the area of eHealth, as well as reports such as that from the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission
(NHHRC) (July 2009) which provided recommendations to transform the Australian health care system, are crucial in handling the impacts of
an ageing population and in helping the aged care industry deal with future demand.
Momentum for using electronic systems in aged care is gaining force. eHealth is a key component in responding to the challenges of an
ageing population in an industry time poor, under resourced and financially challenged.
2010 will see the roll out of NeHTA’s first eHealth building blocks for Australia and from this, momentum towards individual electronic
health records will build. Aged care providers should be starting the process of further understanding the impact of eHealth to the
industry and assessing how your own systems will move health information both internally in your aged care facility, as well as
externally - whether that be with your pharmacy, GPs, hospitals or the Government.
iCare looks forward to continuing to provide relevant eHealth information to aged care providers as we move into 2010.
Kind regards,
Chris Gray
Managing Director
 Pdf version for print.
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