Australia’s growing and ageing population, as well as its rising disease burden from chronic conditions, means demand for healthcare is rising. This increases the pressure on already strained health budgets.

Our healthcare system uses many technologies and models of care of unknown effectiveness. This means that we’re paying for technologies and services that may not work or may even be harmful.

Understanding the value of existing services and technologies, and potential new investments, helps ensure decisions to retain, change or remove services are well informed.

NSW Regional Health Partners (NSWRHP) is working to improve understanding of the need for economic evaluation and impact assessment in healthcare and build capacity for evaluation and informed decision making at the local level.