Documenting the hidden health reports: latest update to Croakey Register of Unreleased Documents

The Croakey Register of Unreleased Documents (CRUD) was first launched in April 2009 with the goal of recording “the details of evaluations, plans, reviews and other such documents that should be released (whether by governments or other commissioning bodies), in the interests of promoting better informed policy, practice and debate”.

Thanks to Daniel Vujcich for providing the latest CRUD update below.

Croakey readers are invited to suggest documents that they think ought to be made public or more easily accessible, and to help us find those listed on the Register. If documents listed as being unreleased are in fact available, please let us know and they shall be liberated from CRUD.

(Click on the table below to see an enlarged version)

The entry previous entry, below, was posted in November 2010. (Click on the table below to see an enlarged version)

CRUD’s guiding philosophy is rooted in Norman Daniels’ call for greater transparency in health policy making processes.  In a BMJ article, Daniels writes that “[a] fair process requires publicity about the reasons and rationales that play a part in decisions.  There must be no secret where justice is involved, for people should not be expected to accept decisions that affect their well being unless they are aware of the grounds for those decisions.”

What CRUD therefore aims to do is to render the reasons and rationales behind health policy making more transparent.  Where a document has been cited as being relevant to a health policy decision, CRUD believes that the document should be easily accessible so that its contents can be analysed, discussed and, where appropriate, used by professional, research, and lay communities.

CRUD encourages government agencies to be proactive in filling the gaps in our health policy making knowledge, in the belief that better informed debates can lead to better policies, and the possibility of a healthier Australia.  One way of doing this is to hyperlink all documents cited in official publications; another is to contact CRUD with copies of Register documents that are difficult to locate, or that have not previously been released.

• Daniel Vujcich is a graduate of the University of Western Australia.  He is currently on a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford where he has completed a Master’s degree in International Development, and now reads for a doctorate in Public Health.  His research relates to the way in which Indigenous Australian health policies are formulated.

If you would like to contact him about the CRUD, please leave a note below, and your contact details will be forwarded to him.