Why is this useful for rural and remote people?

This document is a best practice example of a rural and remote health plan. Queensland is the only State to recognise that the health needs of rural and remote people, and the solutions, are unique. In most jurisdiction rural and remote communities are lumped in with large regional cities resulting in a distorted picture of the nature of need, and poorly conceived strategies to address access and outcomes. In terms of its content, the Queensland Plan provides rural and remote people with an excellent example of what a plan for improving rural and remote health service access and outcomes might look like. It demonstrates that governments can develop coherent, focussed and well-resourced plans for rural and remote people if there is the policy will to do so. 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. In many cases, health plans lack specific outcomes that can be measured by the community, and through which policy makers can be held to account. 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. 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 rural and remote people in other jurisdictions can use to advocate for the same levels of transparency, openness and accountability in their jurisdictions.