Centre of Research Excellence
The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing have engaged consultants to undertake a national evaluation of Phase 3 of the Primary Health Care Research, Evaluation and Development (PHCRED) Strategy.
The PHCRED Strategy was established by the Australian Government in 2000 to focus on improvement to patient outcomes through better primary health care systems, services and practice.
Building on the foundations of the PHCRED Strategy’s previous phases, Phase 3 of the PHCRED Strategy has moved towards a priority-driven approach with a particular focus on primary health care systems research and aims to continue to improve Australia’s capacity in the primary health care research sector, add to the body of knowledge and evidence of primary health care research, and actively promulgate primary health care research to engender effective knowledge exchange.
The evaluation aims to determine the effectiveness and efficiency, appropriateness, and opportunities for possible future improvements to the Strategy, and/or alternative options to the Strategy. Researchers, policy makers and people involved in service delivery in primary health care in Australia will be asked to participate in the evaluation. International experts in primary health care research will also be asked to participate.
The Centre of Research Excellence in Rural and Remote Primary Health Care (CRE) is one of nine CREs funded through the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute (APHCRI) and the PHCRED Strategy Phase 3, and the entire CRE team has been asked to participate in the evaluation.
The first part of our evaluation took place 14-16 October 2013 in Alice Springs with the evaluators interviewing CRE team members from the Centre for Remote Health. The evaluators then visited the Bendigo campus on 21-22 October 2013 to meet with CRE team members from Bendigo and Gippsland. Evaluators will be meeting the Broken Hill CRE team and all other APHCRI CREs over the next few months.
Following these visits, we have received very positive feedback about the activities of the CRE. The evaluation team commented that they were impressed with its governance; in particular the outstanding project management of our CRE, and the visitors were grateful for the time CRE members took in speaking to them. The interviews also provided an opportunity for the evaluators to gain a fuller understanding of our CRE research program and primary health care research in general.
It is expected that the final report of Phase 3 of the PHCRED Strategy will be available in May 2014.