Population Health principles

PHNs operate within their defined catchment areas. PHNs affect health system change by commissioning service providers to deliver services in areas of need. This might be where Hotspots (persistent high use of health services and or incidence of disease) and Blackspots (persistent lack of services in a geographic area) occur.

The overall health spend in the primary health sector is typically measured in $billions. In contrast, funding to PHNs varies according to the population demographic and ranges in the $millions. With this in mind, it is easy to understand that a PHN must act and influence at a population health level rather than an individual patient / client level.