” The National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA) has named four key areas an incoming Federal Government must address to help rural Australians get healthier and live longer.

The nation’s peak body for rural, regional and remote health has also listed in detail what needs to be done in each area.

The four areas are:

1.Improving the health of Indigenous Australians

2.Boosting the supply and distribution of allied health care workers in rural, regional and remote areas

3.Creating a greater research focus on factors affecting rural health;

4.Developing a new National Rural Health Strategy.

NRHA CEO Mark Diamond says much needs to be done so everyone in Australia enjoys better health. Currently those living beyond major cities carry 1.3 times the cost, mortality and disability associated with illness and disease. See full Press Release Part 1 below

Launching its election charter at Parliament House, National Rural Health Alliance chair Tanya Lehmann said Australia needed to start tackling problems impacting on people’s health — problems that would not be fixed by more doctors or technology.

Connection to country, spiritual wellbeing, overcoming intergenerational trauma are central to the health of indigenous Australians,”

NRHA Chair Tanya Lehmann told The Australian. see full article Part 4 below

Download the NRHA 9 Page PDF #Election2019 Charter Document HERE

Rural Health Matters 2019 Election Charter FINAL_1

Part 1 Priority 1. Improve Indigenous health

The current health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are unacceptable. (65% of Indigenous people live in rural Australia.)

We seek a commitment from an incoming government to

1. Endorse the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the Makarrata, ie establish a First Nations Voice in the Australian Constitution and establish a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history.
2. Fund an additional 3000 Aboriginal Health Workers and practitioners. ($180m over 4 years; $180m per year ongoing)
3. Increase base funding of Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations.
4. Eliminate Rheumatic Heart Disease. Get serious about meeting targets set under the END RHD program. ($170m over 4 years.)

See Rationale Part 3 Below  

Fund an additional 3000 Aboriginal Health Workers and practitioners. ($180m over 4 years; $180m per year ongoing)

NACCHO has developed a set of policy #Election2019 recommendations that if adopted, fully funded and implemented by the incoming Federal Government, will provide a pathway forward for improvements in our health outcomes.

We are calling on all political parties to include these recommendations in their election platforms and make a real commitment to improving the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and help us Close the Gap.

With your action and support of our #VoteACCHO campaign we can make the incoming Federal Government accountable.

NACCHO Acting Chair, Donnella Mills

Visit NACCHO for more info

Part 2 :  NRHA CEO Mark Diamond says much needs to be done so everyone in Australia enjoys better health. Currently those living beyond major cities carry 1.3 times the cost, mortality and disability associated with illness and disease.

“We are looking for commitments from all sides of politics as we go into this election not only to fund immediate needs but to take a long-term strategic view for the sake of the future of the seven million people living outside major cities.

“We need a new National Rural Health Strategy. The previous strategy was based on a framework endorsed by the COAG Health Council in 2011.

“It’s use and effectiveness has not been evaluated since and we need to understand how widely that framework or guide for decision-making in planning and delivering effective and better health care and health promotion services is being used and what, if anything, needs to change.

“In short, we need to prepare a new National Rural Health Strategy for the approaching third decade of the 21^st century to ensure all governments and health care service providers are pulling in the same direction when it comes to rural health.”

Mr Diamond says that if people living in rural, regional and remote areas had the same mortality rates as people living in major cities, there would have been almost 20,000 fewer deaths, according to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data for 2009-2011.

“In these areas, coronary heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, transport accidents, diabetes, lung cancer and suicide – all preventable conditions – killed 11 more people a day compared with metropolitan areas.

“This situation is unfair and untenable. All that is required is the political will to fix it. In the lead up to this 2019 Federal election we are keen that voters, candidates and political parties understand what it will take for an incoming government to provide good healthcare and health promotion for all regardless of where they live.”

Over the next four weeks the NRHA will roll out more detail on what it is asking of Australia’s next Federal Government. To learn more, check www.ruralhealth.org.au/election19

The NRHA represents all professions and services dedicated to helping rural Australians get health care and health promotion services. Among them are nurses, physiotherapists, doctors, pharmacists, paramedics, surgeons and other allied health professionals. Its 37 members include national organisations representing those professions and other bodies such as NACCHO ,the Country Women’s Association of Australia, the Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association and the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia.

Part 3 Indigenous Health Rationale

1. More than 1,100 delegates from around Australia voted at the 15^thNational Rural Health Conference in March to seek government endorsement for the Uluru Statement from the Heart as a key priority. Poorer health outcomes in non-metropolitan Australia reflect the widening gap that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience in their health care compared with non-Indigenous people. It is only when we listen to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices that we will be able to deliver health solutions that will succeed.
2. Aboriginal Health Workers and health practitioners are critical to achieving better health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through culturally safe preventative health and treatment services. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have three-fold higher levels of preventable hospital admissions and deaths than other Australians and the burden of disease for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population is 2.3 times higher. A significant driver behind these numbers is that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can often feel unsafe in accessing the health care they need. 2016 data from the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Worker Association shows the number of Indigenous workers in health professions was 1347.A ratio of one for every 150 Indigenous people would require 4328 practitioners – this would mean putting 3000 more Aboriginal Health Workers and practitioners on the ground.
3. Increasing the baseline funding for Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations will remove funding insecurity that threatens their programs and services.
4. Young Indigenous Australians are 55 times more likely to die of rheumatic heart disease than their non-Indigenous peers, yet it is preventable. Priorities have been established under the END RHD program – these need to be implemented immediately.

Updated Part 4 Indigenous voice key to wellbeing

The body representing 37 rural health organisations has urged the next government to endorse the Uluru Statement from the Heart and establish a “voice” to federal parliament as its No 1 priority to improve indigenous health.

Launching its election charter at Parliament House, National Rural Health Alliance chair Tanya Lehmann said Australia needed to start tackling problems impacting on people’s health — problems that would not be fixed by more doctors or technology.

“Connection to country, spiritual wellbeing, overcoming intergenerational trauma are central to the health of indigenous Australians,” she told The Australian.

“Recognising indigenous Australians appropriately in the ­Constitution is an important symbol but it’s more than a symbol, it’s ­actually essential to changing the trajectory of the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal people. It’s ­essential to closing the gap.”

Bill Shorten plans to hold a ­referendum on indigenous recognition in the first term of his prime ministership if he wins the ­election.

Scott Morrison committed $7.3 million in the budget to investigate a model for an advisory body such as a “voice to parliament”.

In its charter, the NRHA said: “It is only when we listen to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices that we will be able to deliver health solutions that will succeed.”

The Uluru Statement from the Heart, released in 2017, called for a First Nations voice to be enshrined in the Constitution, with a Makarrata commission to supervise “a process of agreement-making between governments and First ­Nations people and truth-telling about our history”.

1.