Comprehensive national plan needed to close the gap on Indigenous health

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said this week that the AMA welcomed the Government’s announcement of $9.1 million for new Indigenous mothers and baby services as the latest instalment in its commitment to close the gap on Indigenous health inequality by 2030.

Dr Pesce said that every new funding announcement for Indigenous health services will make a difference – however, in regard to overall progress, the AMA endorses the Close the Gap campaign’s Shadow Report, which finds that the Federal Government still lacks a comprehensive plan to fulfil its commitment to close the gap. The $1.6 billion COAG funding for Indigenous health programs was a good start for closing the gap, and today’s announcement is further good news, but the Shadow Report shows that a more strategic coordinated approach is needed.

Dr Pesce said governments should work in genuine partnership with Indigenous people and their representative organisations to develop and implement a comprehensive national plan to close the gap. Part of that plan must be that all Australian health services are supported to provide high quality and culturally appropriate health care to Indigenous people.

Close the Gap is a coalition of Australia’s leading Indigenous and non-Indigenous health and human rights groups – including the AMA – which are committed to working with federal, state and territory governments to close the gap between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population and other Australians within a generation.  Read more

Changes to 10 year moratorium legislation passed

Legislation that will relax the 10-year moratorium rules – which obliges International Medical Graduates (IMGs) to work in a district of workforce shortage for a minimum period of 10 years – has been passed by Federal Parliament. The changes take effect on 1 April 2010. Under the changes:

• the moratorium starts from when the doctor first gains medical registration (not upon gaining permanent residency, as had previously been the case),
• New Zealand residents who study medicine in Australia and choose to stay are no longer subject to the moratorium, and
• Australian residents who study medicine in New Zealand and then return to Australia are no longer subject to the moratorium.

The Department of Health and Ageing is also implementing streamlined administrative processes, which mean that many IMGs will no longer have to apply for a provider number every few years.

The AMA has welcomed the changes, but we believe that they should be considered as only just the beginning. We have called on the Government to provide temporary resident doctors and their families with access to Medicare and public education, and for it to develop more incentives to get doctors into rural Australia to enable the eventual abolition of the 10 year moratorium.

Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza: CMO writes to GPs

The Chief Medical Officer, Professor Jim Bishop, has called on GPs to promote vaccination against the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza to their patients before the flu season begins in Australia. The CMO has written to all GPs in Australia to ask them to proactively promote vaccination for all people aged six months and above in an effort to stop the spread of swine flu, which is expected to be the dominant influenza strain in 2010.  Read more