Funding and Policy Reforms to Place Priority on Wound Management
26 June 2018
The Wound Management Innovation Cooperative Research Centre (Wound CRC) completes its funding term at the end of this month, and with this comes one of the most significant legacies – Federal Government acknowledgement and response to the national wounds problem.
The Hon Greg Hunt MP, Federal Minister for Health, has recently stated at the AMA conference that there will be a $1 million pilot project focused on Wounds, the Medical Research Futures Fund (MRFF) will consider wounds a priority and he has referred wound care to the Medicare Benefits Schedule Review Taskforce for consideration.
This news arrives in conjunction with revised Aged Care Quality Standards for Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACF), where from the 1st July 2018, RACFs are now required to show that they have staff and procedures in place to manage wound prevalence among residents. Additionally, the federal government has announced funding for new places in RACFs in rural and regional centres.
Wound Innovations, the CRC’s legacy company is ideally placed to continue to deliver the Wound CRC’s original mission and assist on these critical Federal initiatives.
Wound Innovations has multi-disciplinary teams of wound specialists connecting with health services and RACFS in rural and regional centres through national teleheath, with an 80% average wound improvement rate.
In addition, Wound Innovations provides education to RACFs nationally, where we have shown that interventions using our services have reduced aged care residents’ preventable wounds by over 43 per cent in 12 months.
Dr Ian Griffiths, CEO of Wound CRC and incoming CEO of Wound Innovations, today said;
“The very recent federal attention to this national problem reinforces the strength of our outcomes that have been developing since 2010," Dr Griffiths explained.
"The CRC through the great body of work of its research and industry participants has been able to produce strong evidence of the significant cost savings and health outcomes that utilising our interventions can achieve.
"Wound Innovations is delighted to continue the work with the Federal departments and our former Participants to deliver against these initiatives.
"This is what Australia’s wound sufferers deserve.”
Dr Susan Pond AM, Chair of Wound CRC added; “as the Wound CRC completes its 8 year term at the end of this month, these announcements are in many ways a testament to the vision of the initial Commonwealth investment into wounds through the CRC Programme. In 2010, the Wound CRC set out to deliver direct and significant social and economic benefits.
The advocacy, awareness, education and research translation of the CRC, and now the new Federal Government initiatives confirm that this CRC has succeeded in delivering on its investment expectations.”