Queensland Rural and Remote Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022-2027

For Queensland people living in rural and remote areas this Strategy is a guidebook that can be referenced in grants, submissions and other documents to advocate for the needs of your community. In other States and Territories, the Queensland approach demonstrates that planning for the specific needs of rural and remote communities is not only possible, but essential. This could form a key component of an advocacy campaign to governments to develop specific plans to address the different needs of rural and remote communities. The other feature of this Plan is that it includes specific outcome measures - that is, it tells rural and remote people in Queensland exactly what outcomes they can expect to see as a result of the Strategy. For example, the Queensland Government has committed to improving health literacy, health access and pathways to care for people living in rural and remote communities. This is important because without clear and measurable outcomes, there is no way for rural and remote people to hold their governments to account for delivery. The document also enables rural and remote people in Queensland to explore what the government believes the outcomes should be for rural and remote communities, and for rural and remote people to advocate for changes to those outcomes if people in those communities do not believe the performance measures are the right ones. The Queensland Government’s commitment to being transparent, open and accountable with rural and remote people about the types of health care they can expect, and the outcomes that the government plans to deliver, is best practice in Australia and a model that people in other jurisdictions can use to advocate for the same levels of transparency, openness and accountability in their jurisdictions.