Over 12 months ago, we presented our Sector Insights: Healthcare, Aged Care and Retirement Care publication as a part of our ongoing commitment to delivering value-added and timely information on issues important to you, our clients. In that publication we explored, among other things, regulation and reform in the sector and the opportunities and challenges presented by the ageing population in Australia. Both of these themes remain relevant today and are revisited in this update, along with other pertinent topics.

In this instalment, we continue the exploration of the health sector from the perspective of NAB and key industry participants. Following the Federal Government’s Living Longer. Living Better package, we have been fortunate enough to gain insights from two leading aged care providers, Gary Barnier, chief executive officer (CEO) of Domain Principal Group and Andrew Sudholz, CEO of Japara.

We have also taken an in-depth look at the pharmaceutical sector from a number of perspectives, with contributions from academia – Associate Professor Lisa Nissen at the University of Queensland – as well as a range of industry participants, such as Patrick Davies, CEO of Symbion, one of the largest pharmaceutical wholesalers in Australia, as well as Kos Sclavos, national president of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, and Anthony White, pharmacist and owner of Aspley Discount Drug Store.

In addition to this external perspective, a number of internal NAB executives discuss various topics — the challenges of attracting and retaining talent, a market update from HICAPS, a current view on the management of foreign exchange and interest rate risks, and an update on the current trends in public sector health financing. We also share with you the key messages from the results of a client survey conducted by our Group Economics team on current business conditions and reforms in the Australian healthcare sector.

We remain committed to Australian business and the health sector is no exception. NAB has had in place dedicated healthcare-focused bankers through our corporate (nabhealth) and institutional businesses for over five years to ensure this sector, which constitutes an important and growing segment of the economy and provides vital social services to the population, is given the specialised attention that it deserves.

We hope you enjoy this installment of our Sector Insights publication.

For further analysis download the full report.

• Health Sector Insights: Healthcare, Aged & Retirement Care December 2012  (PDF)