AMA calls for action on Indigenous health

Dr Pesce said Indigenous health must be a priority in this election, not an afterthought.

“Indigenous people have the worst health outcomes and life expectancy in Australia, but we are hearing very little policy to deliver better access to health services to the people in greatest need,” Dr Pesce said.

“The unacceptable health outcomes experienced by Indigenous people, and their low access to appropriate health and medical care, should be headline health issues this election.”

To make a real difference in Indigenous health, the AMA urges the next Government to:

• Provide grants over 10 years to non-government organisations and community groups to facilitate health-related capacity building in Indigenous communities. This funding is crucial to build the knowledge, skills and partnerships that Indigenous communities need in order to address the health problems that they face;
• Fund improved access of Indigenous people to medical specialists and tertiary health services;
• Invest in the workforce for Indigenous health through funding the establishment of a national network of Centres of Excellence in Indigenous Health, as hubs of training and research for best-practice Indigenous health care, and providing grants to enhance infrastructure and services provided by Aboriginal Medical Services; and
• Introduce measures to urgently address all the social determinants of health.

“Most of the chronic and communicable diseases plaguing our Indigenous communities are preventable, and we know what needs to be done to make sustainable improvements in Indigenous health,” Dr Pesce said.

“We need to see policies and commitment to close the gap in life expectancy and health outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.”

A recent report from the Menzies Centre for Health Policy – Closing the Gap on Indigenous Disadvantage: Progress towards this important goal – indicates how poorly we are doing in meeting Government targets to close the gap.

Target – Closing the life expectancy gap within a generation.

Progress – Assume a generation is 25 years: 8 per cent of the time available to address this gap target has elapsed.  The progress made to date is cosmetic, due to a different way of measuring the gap.

Target – Halving the gap in mortality rates for Indigenous children under five within a decade.

Progress – Twenty per cent of the time available to address this gap target has elapsed. The data are not yet good enough for us to know if any progress has been made.

10 August 2010

CONTACT:            Geraldine Kurukchi                  02 6270 5467 / 0427 209 753

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