The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) will today attend the Close the Gap Parliamentary event in Canberra to highlight the important role GPs play in achieving equitable healthcare for all Australians.
The event aligns with the release of the Close the Gap progress and priorities report and the submission of the Federal Government’s annual closing the gap report to Parliament.
RACGP President, Dr Liz Marles, and Chair of the RACGP’s National Faculty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, Associate Professor Brad Murphy, are representing the general practice profession at the event and urge the Government to treat the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as a national priority.
“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have the same right as non-Indigenous Australians to enjoy a high quality of health, including not just the physical wellbeing of the individual, but also the social, emotional and cultural wellbeing of the entire community.
“Today we call on the Government to invest in strategic, policy driven research into the barriers faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to primary healthcare, and establish clear goals to Close the Gap in the Australian healthcare system,” said Dr Marles.
The event will be attended by the Prime Minister, the Honourable Tony Abbott and representatives of the Opposition and Greens party.
In its 2014–15 pre-budget submission, the RACGP called on the Government to commit to the funding and implementation of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013–2023, developed by the Department of Health, in order to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing and achieve the Closing the Gap targets.
The RACGP is proud to join almost 200,000 Australians committed to ending the health equality gap by 2030 and looks forward to the outcomes of this Parliamentary event being released in the lead up to Close the Gap Day on 20 March.
The RACGP is committed to supporting efforts to tackle health disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and acknowledges the daily work of many of its members to improve health outcomes for their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients.