Our purpose

Around the world, and here in Australia, many communities can’t get the health services they need — and even if they do, they often struggle to keep them.

Australian Centre for Health Access is here to change that. We focus on helping under-resourced communities get fair, reliable, and long term access to healthcare.

Who we work with

We work directly with communities who face barriers to healthcare, and with the people and organisations who support them, including:

• Local community members
• Doctors, nurses, and other health providers
• Decision-makers in government
• Universities and researchers
• Other sectors linked to health (housing, education, etc.)
• Health service administrators

Our aim

To build and share the knowledge needed so everyone can make better decisions about health access. 

We do this by:

• Creating knowledge – Collecting strong, relevant data and insights
• Turning knowledge into action – Making sure research leads to practical changes
• Scaling success – Repeating and adapting what works in more places
• Raising awareness – Helping the wider public understand why health access matters and how they can help

Our principles

1. Vision first – Every project must help create fair and lasting health access.
2. Trading for impact – We provide useful products and services to fund our work, so we rely less on grants.
3. Reinvestment – Any profit is put straight back into community-led research and innovation.
4. Social accountability – Our research and how it’s done is guided by community input.
5. Collaboration – We work in partnership to achieve more together.
6. Societal influence – We explain our work simply so more people can understand and support better health access.