The new Australian Primary Health Networks: how will they integrate public health and primary care?

On 1 July 2015, the Australian Government established 31 new Primary HealthNetworks (PHNs), following a review by its former Chief Medical Officer, John Horvath, of 61 Medicare Locals created under the previous Labor administration. The Horvath review recommended, among other things, that new, larger primary healthorganisations be established to reduce fragmentation of care by integrating and coordinating healthservices, supporting the role of general practice, and leveraging and administering healthprogram funding. The two main objectives of the new PHNs, as stated on the Department of Health’s website, are “increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of medical services for patients, particularly those at risk of poor healthoutcomes, and improving coordination of care to ensure patients receive the right care in the right place at the right time”. This paper includes three viewpoints, commissioned for this primary health carethemed issue of Public HealthResearch & Practice, from the Australian Government Department of Health, the Public HealthAssociation of Australia and a Sydney-based PHN. We asked the authors to focus particularly on how the newly established networks might help to integrate public healthwithin the primary health carelandscape. Our authors have pointed out the huge overlap between public healthand primary care and looked at evidence showing the great benefits for healthsystems of collaboration between the two. Challenges ahead include a possible government focus on delivery of ‘frontline’ medical services, which may come at the expense of population health, and the complexity of dealing with all primary health carestakeholders, including healthprofessionals, Local HealthDistricts, nongovernment organisations, research institutions and local communities