Stop drip-feed funding for BEACH

Many readers have come to the defence of BEACH, the only independent source of data on GP consults, since my blog on Monday about the federal government’s dragging the chain on funding.
For instance, Andrew (yes it’s the blogosphere and first names and pseudonyms are de rigeur) wrote that the government’s lack of commitment to general practice research is one reason all our bright stars of General Practice research are either working overseas or in salaried tenured positions.
As Andrew says, the government has left BEACH hanging on several occasions, and it’s true that as a journalist I’ve written almost this very same story for several years.
So to keep readers up to date, here’s exactly where things stand as of today.
Funding for BEACH comes via the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) and is assured for the 07/08 year, albeit belatedly.
But given the long lead time for projects such as BEACH surveys, the key question is what happens next, ie will I be writing the same story again next year or will the small group who work on BEACH be able to get on with what they do best?
As it happens, the funding stream for BEACH is a bit convoluted, with the Department of Health and Ageing contracting with AIHW, which in turn gives a share to BEACH via the University of Sydney’s School of Public Health.
According to the school’s head, Professor Glenn Salkeld, an options paper for funding is being prepared by the University in conjunction with AIHW re funding beyond 2008.
“The BEACH survey is terribly important for public health. The data derived from the BEACH survey is crucial for good public health policy and in every sense funding BEACH is a bargain for government”, says Professor Salkeld, who’s hoping for funding agreement by year’s end.
By the sound of it, the ball’s in DoHA’s court.
Let’s hope they do the right thing.