What is known about the topic? Access to specialist care in regional and remote areas often necessitates extensive travel, imposing personal, systemic, and environmental burdens. What does this paper add? This study quantifies travel to public neurosurgery outpatient clinics in South Australia, estimating 1.75 million km travelled, 185,531 L of fuel consumed, 435.6 tonnes of CO₂ emitted, and over AUD 357,000 in fuel costs across 19,148 appointments. What are the implications for practitioners? These findings underscore the environmental and economic impact of in-person care and support expanded adoption of telehealth and outreach models to promote sustainable, equitable service delivery.

What is known about the topic? Despite a doubling of the number of medical graduates almost 25 years ago, health workforce shortages and persistent problems with their distribution remain. What does this paper add? Progress with health workforce reforms has been slow and patients should not have to experience the harms of health workforce shortages and surpluses for another next 25 years. What are the implications for practitioners? A more local approach to health workforce planning is needed to help understand and address shortages.

What is known about the topic? Allied health professionals play a crucial role in supporting people with young-onset dementia through the National Disability Insurance Scheme, but access and coordination of services remain inconsistent, and often poorly aligned with its progressive nature and changing needs. What does this paper add? This paper identifies key issues faced by people with young-onset dementia in accessing allied health services through the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and proposes targeted areas for systemic reform. What are the implications for practitioners? System-level improvements to the National Disability Insurance Scheme are needed to collaborate effectively and deliver tailored allied health services for people with young-onset dementia.

What is known about the topic? Development opportunities for allied health professionals have the potential to improve not only skill attainment, job satisfaction and workforce retention, they also facilitate safer patient care and better outcomes. What does this paper add? This paper describes a development program targeted to early career allied health professionals working across a large health district, and investigates broader goal attainment and participant engagement. What are the implications for practitioners? A development program designed specifically for early career allied health professionals can be effective; however, such programs require support to both participants and their managers to embed them.

What is known about the topic? The did not wait (DNW) group of patients are typically younger, present during evening or night hours, and cite long wait times as the primary reason for leaving. On review of these studies, they are all single centre studies. What does this paper add? Our study analysed state-wide linked data and showed that rising ED patient volumes significantly increased the likelihood of not waiting. Those in the highest patient volume quintile were 3.5 times more likely not to wait, with younger age (15–24 year group) being 6.1 times and lower triage category 5 being 13.3 times more likely not to wait. What are the implications for practitioners? Targeted interventions addressing ED flow and outpatient access to treatment may reduce DNW rates, particularly for younger, lower-acuity patients.

What is known about the topic? The harmful use of alcohol is a major contributor to the global burden of disease, disabilities and deaths. People arriving at emergency departments with alcohol-related harm have a different demographic profile, clinical characteristics and outcomes compared with other emergency department presentations. What does this paper add? Medication, pathology and radiology are commonly required for people presenting to emergency departments with alcohol-related harm. Nearly two-thirds arrive by ambulance and arrive after hours (between 6 pm and 6 am). What are the implications for practitioners? People arriving at the emergency department with alcohol-related harm require significant resourcing.

What is known about the topic? Before the introduction of the National Mutual Acceptance scheme, overly bureaucratic research ethics and governance processes hindered Australasian maternity outcomes surveillance, and recent evidence from other disciplines suggests that multi-centre research remains obstructed by costly and inefficient governance processes. What does this paper add? Our research demonstrates: complex, repetitive and inconsistent research governance processes impede statewide review of severe acute maternal morbidity. What are the implications for practitioners? Overregulation of low- and negligible-risk research is costly and limits investigation and prevention of life-threatening obstetric conditions.

What is known about the topic? Intravenous medications have multiple steps required to safely prepare and administer. Succinct, clear instructions can be difficult to find and may be prone to error. What does this paper add? This paper reports on the establishment of a hospital clinical pharmacist-led group to develop and maintain intravenous medication guidelines on preparation, administration and relevant information to clinicians. Each guideline is regularly reviewed and improved based on end-user feedback. What are the implications for clinicians? Clinicians have access to clear, accurate guidelines tailored to the needs of the hospital that can be accessed quickly.

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What is known about the topic? Value-based health care (VBHC) is now enmeshed within Australian healthcare conversations as well as implementation strategies. What does this paper add? This paper explores the barriers and opportunities for VBHC and compares the differing paradigms of VBHC and health economics. What are the implications for practitioners? o harmonise the two, and realise VBHCs potential, we must bridge existing misalignments, experiment with hybrid models that integrate VBHC’s focus on outcomes with health economic principles to ensure care is not just high value at the bedside, but also fair and efficient at the population level.

What is known about the topic? Current health policy emphasises value-based care: efficient, outcome-driven models that aim to improve quality and reduce cost. Emerging research shows value frameworks often prioritise clinical metrics and provider performance over patient-defined experience or meaning. What does this paper add? It argues that meaning — not just measurable value — must be foregrounded in healthcare policy. The commentary explores how policies assumed universal access but often reinforce inequity, eroding trust and excluding marginalised voices. It makes the case for treating lived experience as foundational, not optional, and for structuring policy around real-world meaning, not just metrics. What are the implications for practitioners? Practitioners should embed consumer voice early and consistently, across service design, evaluation, and funding decisions, to ensure equity and trust. They should invest time and resources in engaging voices often excluded by assumptions of universality (such as people with disability, chronic illness or low income). And they should recognise that access, dignity, and visibility must precede ‘value’ if equitable care is the goal.

What is known about the topic? The overwhelming majority of inpatient procedures in Australia are performed under no- or known-gap arrangements, but there is a suggestion that this is associated with ‘booking fees.’ What does this paper add? The arrangements that private health insurers impose on specialists mean that real fees for procedures have fallen dramatically while costs of providing care have increased. What are the implications for practitioners? At a time when private health insurers are making record profits a rethink of no- and known-gap arrangements – which constitute price caps – must occur urgently.

What is known about the topic? A reflection of the effectiveness of national health funding reforms, the challenges faced by such reforms, and considerations required to move to a value-based healthcare agenda. What does this paper add? This reflection examines Australia’s 2010 national health reforms, particularly the pursuit of technical efficiency and the unintended perverse incentives it has generated. It explores the key actors across the health system and how their influence can inadvertently shape a value-based agenda in ways that diverge from the original reform objectives. What are the implications for practitioners? It provides an opportunity to reflect that the lens that we use will impact the outcome, and that various lenses and perspectives exist when pursuing a value based health agenda. It provides insights that can improve policy to deliver effective reforms in the future.

What is known about the topic? Values-based healthcare is a driver of patient outcomes within the constraints of a challenging resource poor health care environment. What does this paper add? and what are the implications for practitioners? This paper suggests that in addition to the robust integration of ethical principles into clinical practice, an effective complaints resolution mechanism enhances the compassion and patient centredness of health care and provides a more sustainable basis for value-based healthcare into the future.