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The Zap: latest health and aged care news, plus consultations not to miss

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Recommendations for preventing and ensuring better care for birth-related injuries, high-level concerns about the implementation of aged care reforms, and updated guidelines for reducing the risk of cognitive decline and dementia – these are among the topics covered this week.

Our columnist also provides a reality-check for claims put forward by the Australian Society of Ophthalmologists and National Seniors Australia about private health insurance policy, and raises some questions for the Therapeutic Goods Administration about its efficacy testing of listed medicines.

And the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care is “reaching out across the country to listen, learn, and discuss options for strengthening cultural safety in hospital care” – no doubt many Croakey readers will have plenty of ideas on this.

The quotable?

the message is clear, Australia’s comprehensive approach to tobacco control is working.”

Charles Maskell-Knight writes:

The Grattan Institute released a report on how to achieve a better deal for patients and taxpayers from community pharmacy, proposing that the current Community Pharmacy Agreement (due to expire in mid 2029) is the last such agreement.

Grattan health program director Peter Breadon and colleague Mia Jessurun covered the salient points in an article for Croakey here.

Under current arrangements, where a deal is negotiated in secret between the Government and the Pharmacy Guild, they argue that “bad governance has led to bad deals – unless you own a pharmacy”.

“Profits have surged, while patients miss out on cheaper medicines and choices about where to get them, and taxpayers pay too much.”

The report went on to argue dispensing fees are probably too high, regulatory protections dictate who can own pharmacies and where they can be set up, and discounts are generally banned or discouraged by financial penalties.

“All these rules choke off competition that would improve choice, increase opening hours, and cut prices… Pharmacy policy is a shakedown that needs a shakeup.”

It suggested five reforms:

  1. Negotiations should be replaced by independent decisions, as happens for other types of healthcare
  2. Dispensing fees should be streamlined and reset, set independently, based on cost not bargaining, and unjustified fees should be scrapped
  3. Rules on pharmacy location and ownership should be removed immediately, and restrictions on discounts should be phased out
  4. Services must deliver value for money, the criteria for MedsChecks should be tighter, and administration aids should be repriced. Pharmacists should be able to prescribe for urinary tract infection, but other services must wait for decisive evidence from national trials on the most cost-effective options
  5. The Government should fund pharmacists in GP clinics, where evidence shows that their expertise can improve care.

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) said the report was “a welcome reminder of the need for urgent reform, including the need to scrap outdated and anti-competitive pharmacy location rules, allow discounting, and give both patients and taxpayers a better deal”.

AMA President Dr Danielle McMullen said reports over the last 25 years had “called for the removal of pharmacy ownership and location rules because they are anti-competitive, as well as a raft of other reforms”.

The secrecy surrounding the setting of pharmacist remuneration was “quite a contrast to the public process around hospital pricing, Medicare pricing, private health premium increases, aged care reforms – you name it”, she said.

McMullen said the AMA had been a long-term supporter of incorporating pharmacists in general practice, noting that “this is one area backed by evidence – with overseas examples demonstrating the success of pharmacists working in partnership with GPs”.

The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) urged the Government to adopt the Grattan recommendations, saying they would “improve patient care, deliver better value for taxpayers, and strengthen collaboration across the health system”.

The RACGP said the report “highlights the Pharmacy Guild’s ongoing donations to political parties – totalling $2.5 million over the past five years – and the impact that has had on policy decisions”.

RACGP President Dr Michael Wright said: “Australians deserve a healthcare system that delivers the best quality care for patients and the best possible value for taxpayers. We can’t have lobbyist led healthcare in Australia.

“We welcome recommendations that improve transparency, strengthen accountability and support greater integration and collaboration across the healthcare system.”

The RACGP said it “particularly welcomed the report’s recommendation to invest in integrated, non-dispensing pharmacists embedded in general practices and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, noting this model supports collaboration between health professionals while maintaining continuity of care”.

At the time of writing, the Pharmacy Guild had not issued a statement reacting to the report.

For those who came in late, it is worth noting that there used to be an independent price setting mechanism for pharmacy remuneration – the Pharmaceutical Benefits Remuneration Tribunal (PBRT). In 1989, following a number of studies of pharmacy costs, it recommended a reduction in the dispensing fee, partly due to the efficiency gains flowing from increased use of technology.

After an uproar from the Guild, in 1990 the Government entered into the first Community Pharmacy Agreement with the Guild to set the dispensing fee, and that system has continued to the present day.

It is reasonable to expect that technology improvements since 1989 have led to further substantial reductions in the cost of dispensing medicines, but these have not been reflected in the dispensing fees set in the community pharmacy agreements.

As of 1 July pharmacies receive a dispensing fee of $9.24 and an “administration, handling and infrastructure” fee of $5.12 for most PBS scripts – a total of $14.36.

By way of contrast, the equivalent combined fee under the UK National Health Service is £1.52.

And as Dr Lesley Russell has reported for Croakey in the past, a number of reviews and commentators have been critical of the lack of data about the effectiveness of the community pharmacy programs supported by the agreements which receive funding of several hundred million dollars a year.

(Although the PBRT still exists, subsection 98BAA(1) of the National Health Act 1953 requires it to give effect to the terms of the Community Pharmacy Agreement rather than reach an independent view of the appropriate dispensing fee.)

Smoking and nicotine use

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) released high level data on tobacco use, e-cigarette use and the use of other nicotine products drawn from the latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS), held from June to December 2025.

It found in 2025:

  • 5.6 percent of people aged 14 and over smoked daily, down from 19.5 percent in 2001 and 8.3 percent in 2022–2023. This was equivalent to around 1.3 million people smoking daily in 2025, compared with 3.0 million in 2001 and 1.8 million in 2022-23
  • daily e-cigarette use (3.6 percent) remained stable from 2022-23, a shift from the previously increasing trend. In addition, fewer people are using e-cigarettes weekly and monthly, meaning that the proportion of people currently using e-cigarettes has declined
  • 1.8 percent of people reported having used oral nicotine pouches in the previous year.

Health Minister Mark Butler said “these results show our world-leading vaping reforms are making a difference, but we know there is still more work to be done to protect Australians from the harms of smoking and vaping”.

He said the Government was introducing “tougher restrictions for nicotine pouches”.

These were announced by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, which said new regulations to apply from 24 July meant people would no longer be able to “import nicotine pouches through the Personal Importation Scheme, access them through the Special Access Scheme or Authorised Prescriber Scheme, or have them compounded by pharmacists”.

It said this meant “there is no longer a lawful pathway for consumers to buy or import nicotine pouches in Australia”.

Minister Butler held a media conference with Assistant Minister for Customs Julian Hill to discuss the AIHW data. Butler was asked about the contrast between the AIHW data showing smoking declining, and the recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) report based on wastewater analysis showing consumption of illicit tobacco increasing.

He said the ABS analysis may well have been confounded by increases in the nicotine content of vapes, increasing use of pouches, and stronger illegal cigarettes, and emphasised the NDSHS should be seen as the authoritative source of data.

Croakey republished an article from The Conversation by Professors Becky Freeman and Michelle Jongenelis arguing “the survey shows decades of strong public health focus and policy have worked”.

“Now it is time to finish the job,” they said, putting forward recommendations for further action, including strong restrictions on how and where tobacco is sold.

A range of organisations responded to the AIHW data and the ban on nicotine pouches.

AMA President Dr Danielle McMullen welcomed the announcement on pouches, saying “some of these unapproved pouches contain huge doses of nicotine, much higher than what is absorbed smoking one cigarette”

“They should not be positioned as a ‘healthier alternative’ to smoking or as a proven smoking cessation therapy.”

She added “the effectiveness of the proposed amendments will require active monitoring, cooperation between regulators and platform and payment providers, and timely action to remove the adverts and products, as well as enforcement at our borders”.

Cancer Council Australia CEO Jacinta Reddan said the AIHW data “should put to rest suggestions that Australia’s tobacco control settings need to be weakened in response to illicit tobacco”.

Reddan said “cutting tobacco tax won’t stop criminal operators selling illicit products”.

“It will simply make all cigarettes cheaper, increase consumption and boost tobacco company profits,” she said. “Meanwhile criminal supply chains, who pay no tax at all, will simply further undercut the regulated market.”

Lung Foundation Australia welcomed the data, and said “the findings reinforce that comprehensive tobacco control measures are working and must continue”.

The Foundation’s Chief Executive Officer, Mark Brooke, said “the message is clear, Australia’s comprehensive approach to tobacco control is working”.

“Public education, restrictions on access and marketing, strong enforcement and support for people who want to quit are all helping reduce smoking rates and improve the health of Australians,” he said.

He warned that reducing excise to address the illegal tobacco trade would not work, and “would primarily benefit multinational tobacco companies while doing little to disrupt the organised criminal networks responsible for the illicit tobacco market”.

The Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) applauded the drop in daily smoking rates.

PHAA President Professor Caroline Miller emphasised the reliability of the data, saying the NDSHS “is the best in the business, because it’s used the same questions for decades, and is extensive with a sample size of more than 17,000 people”.

Ministers and government

Minister Butler announced that Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) and Kesimpta (ofatumumab), the two drugs for multiple sclerosis that sponsors had threatened to remove from the PBS, would remain available under the scheme following advice from “the medicine experts” – presumably PBAC.

MS Australia applauded the announcement.

On 15 July, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (DHDA) announced the time for experienced and professionally diverse individuals to apply to join the Aged Care Quality and Safety Advisory Council had been extended to 19 July.

The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) said H5 bird flu had been detected in a non-migratory seabird. However, it continued to assess the health risk to the Australian human population as low.

The AIHW also released:

While one in four people met their grains and cereals and fruit recommendations, and one in five people met the recommendation for lean meat and alternatives, only 4.3 percent of people met the recommendation for vegetables, legumes and beans.

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) began the process of “reaching out across the country to listen, learn, and discuss options for strengthening cultural safety in hospital care”.

It invited “people and organisations with knowledge, experience or expertise in cultural safety, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, hospital care, health system reform, lived experience, workforce practice, governance, accountability, standards, accreditation, measurement or service delivery” to complete a process to help it understand the best ways to connect, share information and yarn.

The Inspector-General of Aged Care, Natalie Siegel-Brown, gave a powerful speech at the National Press Club on “The Math Ain’t Mathin’: Is Australia funding independence or decline?”.

After acknowledging the new Aged Care Act “is built around a powerful proposition: that every older person is entitled not just to care, but to dignity, respect, connection, individuality and cultural safety”, she went on to argue that “the way aged care reform is being implemented, is causing harm”.

“And that doesn’t just cost people their rights, it costs the taxpayer as well,” she said.

Siegel-Brown went on “we say we want people to age in place, yet we discourage people from accessing support at home”.

“We say we want to slow demand for residential aged care, yet we weaken the very supports that prevent it. And we say we cannot build enough beds, while making it harder for people to stay out of them.”

Siegel-Brown has been making this argument for some time, and articulated it very effectively on this occasion.

Asked about the speech on Radio National, Minister Butler said: “I didn’t watch her entire speech. Some of the reports from it I found surprising. She talked about things that we learned about in Government for the first time.

“She hasn’t been reporting some of the issues that got a lot of attention in the media before to us. She talked about economic modelling that she’s not provided to us. She talked about the number of people waiting for aged care that’s very different to the numbers that are being reported by our Department in a very transparent, regular way.”

Even if it was true that some of the detail was news to the Government, the general tenor of her comments was entirely consistent with her earlier statements.

In any event, novelty in itself does not detract from the validity of an argument.

However, Siegel-Brown’s office provided an exclusive statement to Health Services Daily saying she had written to the ministers and DHDA in March about the economic modelling referenced in her speech, and discussed the project with Aged Care Minister Sam Rae last month.

And the figure of 200,000 people waiting for aged care was made up of two figures reported by DHDA as of 31 March: 98,606 awaiting aged care assessment, and 100,191 people who have been assessed as being eligible for the Support at Home program, but have not yet been allocated an ongoing place.

COTA Australia welcomed the speech, saying “it was a timely reminder that Australia’s aged care reforms must ultimately be judged by one measure: whether they improve the lives of older Australians”.

COTA CEO Patricia Sparrow said the Inspector-General “reinforced the need to shift aged care from responding to crisis towards supporting people earlier”.

“For too long we’ve had a system that waits until people reach crisis before stepping in,” she said. “We need to invest earlier, helping older Australians stay healthy, independent and connected to their communities for as long as possible.”

Consumer and public health groups

At the start of Birth Trauma Awareness Week, Birth Trauma Australia released a report it had commissioned from Nous Group which found:

  • birth injuries and ongoing conditions cost Australia an estimated $17.5 billion in one year alone
  • an estimated 1.1 million women in Australia are living with birth injuries, many of which remain under-recognised, under-treated and under-reported.

Birth Trauma Australia CEO and co-founder Amy Dawes said “we commissioned this report because we knew the impact was significant, but until now no one had measured its true cost”.

“The findings are staggering.”

The $17.5 billion total cost includes lost earnings ($8.8 billion) and wellbeing and burden of disease impacts ($6.5 billion).

Birth Trauma Australia called for a National Best-Practice Model for Evidence-based, Consumer-led Perinatal Care including:

  • Extending the funded postnatal care period from six to eight weeks to 12 months postpartum to better support recovery
  • Expanding access to relevant Medicare-funded postnatal services, support and clinical programs, throughout the first 12 months postpartum, including strengthening existing MBS items to deliver more consistent care and improve data collection
  • Formally recognising pelvic floor dysfunction as a chronic condition to improve access to earlier diagnosis, treatment and ongoing care.

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) released the final report of a roundtable on birth trauma with five recommendations.

These included modernising postnatal care settings to support early identification and continuity of care, strengthen multidisciplinary postnatal and recovery pathways, and improving affordability and access to prevention and early intervention.

The Australian College of Midwives (ACM) said it welcomed the growing national focus on birth trauma and supports the work of Birth Trauma Australia.

ACM Chief Midwife Kelley Lennon said “we know how to prevent much of this trauma”.

“Continuity of midwifery care enables women to have access to a trusted relationship throughout their pregnancy, birth and beyond, and that relationship is what makes respectful, informed care possible… what women need now is action: policy that makes this model of care available to every woman in Australia.”

Continence Health Australia said the report findings “reinforce the urgent need for better prevention, pre-natal education about modes of delivery, earlier intervention and ongoing support for women following childbirth”.

Palliative Care Australia and Ageing Australia (the lobby group for aged care providers) belatedly welcomed the recommendation from the Senate inquiry into the transition of the Commonwealth Home Support Program to Support at Home that the Government should abolish the funding and time restrictions placed on the End-of-Life Pathway, and develop a flexible, clinically guided, needs‑based model that provides funding for end-of-life care for older Australians wishing to receive care in their home.

(The Senate inquiry report was tabled in late June.)

The two groups said the recommendation “recognises that care at the end of life should be shaped around a person’s needs, not arbitrary limits or uncertain predictions about how long they may live”.

First Nations

The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ageing and Aged Care Council (NATSIAACC) acknowledged the Government’s response to the report of the former Interim First Nations Aged Care Commissioner Andrea Kelly, completed in December 2024.

NATSIAACC CEO Kim Whiteley said: “The roadmap is clear. The time for further reports has passed.

“Our success now depends on whether these reforms, delivered through Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-led decision-making and consistent with the Closing the Gap Priority Reforms, make a meaningful difference in the everyday lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders and Older People.

“Success will not be measured by reports, legislation or policy commitments. It will be measured by whether Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders and Older People can age with dignity through culturally safe and trauma-informed care, with genuine choice and control, and connection to culture, community and Country or Island Home.”

NACCHO’s Youth Diabetes Advisory Committee, formed under the NACCHO|Bupa Foundation Health Strong, Diabetes Gone partnership, marked National Diabetes Week with the message “no shame in diabetes, no shame in checking, and a free health check is where taking charge begins”.

Trade unions

The Australian College of Nursing (ACN) said AIHW data showing increasing rates of chronic disease and increasing numbers of people missing out on GP visits because of cost highlighted the need for funding to allow nurses to deliver primary care.

(The AIHW data related to 2024-25, before the GP bulkbilling incentive was extended to all patients.)

ACN called for funding reform that:

  • establishes the Baseline Practice Payment and extends the Workforce Incentive Payment (Practice Stream) to ACSQHC accredited nurse-led services
  • removes MyMedicare barriers so independent nurse practitioner- and registered nurse-led clinics can register and access core MBS items, incentives and telehealth – and extends the MBS 75 percent rebate rule to nurse practitioners
  • scales designated registered nurse prescribing through scholarships for 2,500 nurses a year with Commonwealth Supported Place eligibility, and provides a funding mechanism and pathology-testing access via a Nurse Payment Administrator
  • counts nursing activity and outcomes in the new National Primary Health Care Data Collection, making the contribution – and the unmet demand – visible to funders.

The Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) and the RACGP said they had established a Joint Consultative Committee on Rural Generalist Medicine, “reinforcing a shared commitment to strengthen and advance Rural Generalist Medicine across Australia”.

National Rural Health Commissioner Professor Jenny May AM, who will chair the committee, said “bringing together the expertise of both colleges creates an important opportunity to support the ongoing development of Rural Generalist Medicine and ensure rural, remote and First Nations communities continue to have access to high-quality care”.

The AMA released an updated Role of the Doctor position statement, “outlining the unique role doctors play in diagnosing illness, managing risk, supporting informed decision making and providing safe, accountable medical care”.

President McMullen said “at a time when misinformation spreads faster than facts, patients need someone they can trust to explain what the evidence shows and what it means for them”.

“That trust is earned through years of medical education, supervised training, and ongoing professional development.”

The Australian Society of Ophthalmologists (ASO) and National Seniors Australia said they were “collaboratively pushing the issue [of the Government’s decision to reduce private health insurance premium rebates for over-65s] into the spotlight”.

The two organisations said the decision to introduce higher rebates for older Australians in 2004 was intended “to encourage older Australians into private health and ease pressure on the public system”.

(As somebody who was involved in implementing the decision, I can only describe this as a post-decision rationalisation for public consumption – the real basis for the decision was a desire to reward older Australians for voting for the Coalition.)

The ASO said it was concerned that older Australians would downgrade their cover to policies that did not cover procedures such as cataract surgery, and would then “face either higher out-of-pocket costs or long waits for treatment in an already-stretched public system, with their vision hanging in the balance”.

There is still no logical reason for paying a higher rebate for older people than for younger people in the same income band.

The Health Services Union (HSU) said it had lodged an application with the Fair Work Commission to vary the Health Professionals and Support Services Award to explicitly cover optometrists.

The HSU said this would give optometrists working for Australia’s corporate eye-care chains “enforceable rights to proper breaks, predictable rosters and payment for every hour worked” and end “the uncertainty that has left workers in the heavily corporatised sector without a clear and enforceable workplace safety net”.

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians said a study published in its Internal Medicine Journal has found low rates of efficacy testing of listed medicines by the TGA.

The only evidentiary requirement to list a medicine is that the sponsor declare it holds evidence to support the product’s efficacy. The TGA may then conduct random compliance reviews once a product is being supplied.

The TGA has not published any reports of random reviews of compliance since 2018, even though its current publications state that random assessments are being conducted.

The study found that “of the 62 efficacy reports [the TGA] conducted, 33 reports indicated that the sponsor did not hold substantial evidence of efficacy nor were some of the claims made for their product permitted for listed medicines”.

This strike rate suggests the TGA could usefully be carrying out more efficacy reports.

The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons said “clinicians, hospitals and healthcare leaders, patients, and community can now access the new ANZELA-QI Dashboard, an interactive reporting platform designed to support quality improvement in emergency laparotomy care”.

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists said a new report from its Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (FCAP) “finds too many Australian children are missing out on specialist mental healthcare until they are older, sicker and in crisis”.

FCAP Chair Scientia Professor Valsamma Eapen AO said “mental health conditions do not suddenly begin at 14”.

“For many children, the signs are there much earlier, but they are not getting access to specialist care when it could make the biggest difference.

“By the time many children reach services, their needs are more complex and will require intensive intervention that are more expensive but less effective.”

Eapen said there was a need to “increase funded child and adolescent psychiatrist positions, strengthen the training pipeline, and ensure children can access specialist care early, not just in crisis”.

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia marked National Diabetes Week with a statement “urging rural and remote Australians over 40 to book an appointment with their GP to check for Type 2 diabetes, saying the condition can often be treated effectively if diagnosed early”.

Industry groups

In an opinion piece published in Health Services Daily, Australian Health Service Alliance (AHSA) Chief Executive Andrew Sando argues that the real private health system reform conversation shouldn’t be about price per service, but about measuring what care actually delivers for patients.

(The AHSA purchases hospital services on behalf of most smaller private health insurers.)

Sando writes “private health service measurement has to date provided an incomplete picture of success in Australia: we know the functional outputs – what’s done for patients – but not how patients feel and live afterwards”.

“Ineffective and unnecessary care acts as an invisible tax on Australian private health premiums, and with around 15 million Australians holding some form of cover, the cumulative cost of less-than-optimal care is significant, both financially and personally,” he said.

AHSA has begun to collect patient data, and Sando wrote “some 120,000 patient responses across hundreds of hospitals, independently benchmarked points to something simple: listen at scale, and care improves”.

International organisations

The World Health Organization (WHO) released updated guidelines on reducing the risk of cognitive decline and dementia, providing “evidence-based recommendations to help prevent or delay the onset of dementia across the life course”.

WHO said “up to 45 percent of the risks [of dementia] can be attributed to modifiable risk factors such as tobacco, alcohol use, social isolation, physical inactivity, air pollution and noncommunicable diseases, including high blood pressure and diabetes”.

“The guidelines recommend several healthy behaviours and lifestyle interventions to reduce dementia risk, including cognitive training and cognitive stimulation and engagement in social activities for adults who have normal cognition or are experiencing mild cognitive impairment.

“The updated advice also includes interventions that reduce risk of NCDs [non communicable diseases], including increasing physical activity, stopping tobacco use, reducing alcohol consumption, adopting a healthy diet, and a new recommendation to reduce exposure to air pollution.”

Finally

The New York Times reported on the Senate confirmation hearing for Dr Erica Schwartz to lead the US CDC.

Although as a former deputy surgeon-general Schwartz appears well qualified for the role, she appears to have been living under a rock for the last 18 months.

She told the Senate committee she was unaware of the cuts made by the Trump Administration to mRNA vaccine contracts, smoking cessation and food safety programs.

The Times reported she also “repeatedly said she did not think Mr Kennedy or Mr Trump would ask her to do anything to hurt public health or break the law”.

Senator Maggie Hassan, Democrat of New Hampshire, told Schwartz “there are multiple examples of the President actively instructing people to break the law over and over again”, adding that it was “not a satisfactory response to say he would never do that”.

While she reiterated her support for vaccines and accepted the evidence that vaccines do not cause autism, Schwartz “stopped short of agreeing to take down wording on the CDC website, introduced by Kennedy, that says the issue remains unresolved”.

Consultations and inquiries

Here is our weekly list of requests by government bodies and parliamentary committees for responses to consultations or submissions to inquiries, arranged in order of submission deadlines. Please let us know if there are any to add for next week’s column.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand
Cell cultured duck (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus) biomass
22 July

Senate Committee on Environment and Communications
Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026 and National Self-exclusion Register (Cost Recovery Levy) Amendment Bill 2026
24 July

Senate Committee on Environment and Communications
Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026
24 July

Senate Community Affairs Committee
Therapeutic Goods Amendment (Medicines Shortages and Other Measures) Bill 2026 and Therapeutic Goods (Charges) Amendment Bill 2026
24 July

Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
Help shape culturally safe hospital care for First Nations people – expressions of interest
30 July

Therapeutic Goods Administration
Radiopharmaceutical regulation in Australia
31 July

Senate Community Affairs Committee
Support at Home Program
31 July

Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
Provide feedback on the Standard for VTE prevention
31 July

Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Fee Transparency in Health Care: Informed Financial Consent and Split Billing Practices
5 August

Therapeutic Goods Administration
Changes to the Permissible Indications Determination
12 August

Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
Updated pathology Standard
12 August

Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
Requirements for Haemopoietic Cellular Therapy
12 August

Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Private Health Reforms – Consultation Paper 1
13 August

Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Consultation on the Medical Research Future Fund Australian Medical Research and Innovation Strategy and Priorities
16 August

Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority
The development of residential aged care pricing and costing advice to the Government for 2027-28
21 August

Senate Community Affairs Committee
Private Health Insurance Amendment (Modernising the Private Health Insurance Rebate) Bill 2026
21 August

Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Co-design the future of aged care Application Programming Interfaces
29 August

Therapeutic Goods Administration
Improvements to the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code
3 September

Medical Services Advisory Committee

9 October

House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability
Inquiry into the access to and affordability of medical specialists
16 October

Charles Maskell-Knight PSM was a senior public servant in the Commonwealth Department of Health for over 25 years before retiring in 2021. He worked as a senior adviser to the Aged Care Royal Commission in 2019-20. He is a member of Croakey Health Media; we thank and acknowledge him for providing this column as a probono service to our readers. Follow on X/Twitter at @CharlesAndrewMK, and on Bluesky at: @charlesmk.bsky.social.

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