Investing in community health infrastructure

Community health organisations provide services like general practice, dental care and allied health at low or no cost to Victorians experiencing disadvantage. They also offer social services like aged care, housing and homelessness services, and mental health support.

These services can help reduce demand on public hospitals by treating people early and managing chronic conditions in the community before they get worse.

Community health organisations could help more people, but most operate out of buildings that are old or not fit for purpose, with leaking roofs and structural issues. Some have had to give up funding for services because their spaces cannot accommodate their clients' needs. 

This research finds with the right planning and a small increase in infrastructure funding, community health organisations can help keep the most vulnerable Victorians healthy and ease demand on our hospitals and emergency departments.

Key findings

• In Victoria in 2023–24, around 546,000 people could have avoided visiting a hospital emergency department if a primary care or community health service had been managing their health condition. This would have saved Victoria’s public hospitals about $554 million per annum in expenditure in emergency departments.
• Almost half of Victorians, 3.2 million people, live with at least one chronic health condition.
• In Australia, chronic health conditions contribute 85% of the total disease burden each year. Research suggests that chronic conditions could cost Australians $20.5 billion in lost income every year by 2030.
• Registered community health organisations receive about half of their service funding from the Victorian Government and 28% from the Australian Government.
• Infrastructure Victoria’s infrastructure survey found:
  • 89% of community health organisations rated at least one of their buildings as being in poor condition or close to the end of life.
  • One in 5 buildings are in poor condition, affecting the ability of community health providers to deliver services.  
  • Of all buildings, 40% have an infrastructure issue that affects the delivery of services or the number of people that they can serve.

Recommendations

This report makes 3 recommendations to the Victorian Government: 

• Conduct an asset assessment of all community health facilities in Victoria, including integrated and registered community health services.
• Undertake long-term infrastructure planning in consultation with community health services and use this to develop community health services infrastructure investment priorities.
• Invest in community health facilities to support the delivery of local, high-quality community health services over the next 5 years.