CANBERRA, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government's National Health and Hospital Reform Commission is set to finish its nationwide public consultations in Hobart next week, which aims at reforming the health system.

    After receiving more than 500 submissions, the commission is three months from delivering its interim report on health reform to federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon, Commission head Christine Bennett said on Friday.

    She told reporters in Canberra that the lack of access to primary care providers, such as GPs, was a bigger issue for most submitters than hospital waiting lists.

    "Once or twice in your life, you or someone in your family might be on a waiting list but every year, every month, every week people are trying to access primary care to manage their health," she said.

    "There was feedback that good health and wellbeing should be as much a focus of the system as treating diseases," she said.

    Bennett also said creating electronic medical records available to patients and medical professionals was a key consideration for the health system's future.

    "We have amazing communication technology prevalent throughout our society ... and yet we still haven't conquered the electronic health record that an individual can access and provide access to the carers that they might have," she added.

    Bennett also said it "will be one of the key focuses of our report to say ... the most important health information you can have is your health information."

    According to the commission head, the largest challenges facing the health system were an ageing population, declining labour market and ballooning obesity and diabetes rates.