National Drug Council publishes report on how resources are and could be allocated to treatment services5 June 2007
A report published today reviews the published literature and research on resource allocation principles and methods in health care. The research was conducted by Siggins Miller on behalf of the Australian National Council on Drugs, the principal advisory body to the Australian Government on drug and alcohol issues.
The report titled “Allocation of Resources to Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug and Alcohol Services” reflects a variety of approaches to questions of policy and strategy. For example:
- Should government fund or subsidise certain services? Issues of safety, efficacy, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness are relevant here, and analytic tools have been developed to address them.
- What is the best way to allocate available resources across different geographical regions (a critical question for Australia)? The literature on this aspect of resource allocation approaches is relatively well developed for general health services, but relatively undeveloped for ATOD services.
- What is the most effective way to allocate funds to specific services within a region or a state?
The report deals with the following topics:
- Principles of resource allocation
- Deciding which interventions will be supported
- Allocating resources across regions, and existing methods for allocating resources to regions
- Allocating resources within regions
- Resource allocation to alcohol and drug services
- Indicators of need for ATOD-specific services
- Developing local systems of effective treatment
- Options for developing a resource allocation formula for ATOD services in Australia.
Download Full Report (PDF)
Source: Daily Dose
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