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Shortfalls in the consultation between patient advocates and government on healthcare tech funding must be improved, researchers from the University of Adelaide have argued.
Dr Jackie Street, senior lecturer in public health said patient organisations are not being effectively engaged, which can mean technologies crucial to patients go unfunded or underfunded.
“New medical technologies offer additional treatment hopes to patients across all fields of health and medicine,” Street said. “But they also represent a major financial outlay either for the patient or the public purse, which is why such consultation processes are important for decision-making.”
Street and researchers from the university’s School of Population Health studied patient groups and committee members to determine why patient groups were or were not involved in the process.
Results, which have recently been published in Health Expectations, showed deficits in the way patient groups were consulted. Amongst the main barriers mentioned were a perceived lack of transparency, a lack of provided information and tight response deadlines.
In an interview with Nursing Review, PhD student Edilene Lopes said the lack of transparency causes patient groups not to fully understand how the process functions or how their contribution would be used.
Listen below to hear the full interview with Jackie Street and Edilene Lopes.
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