ANY moves to scrap the federal government’s Closing the Gap initiative would be a backward step for health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, according to chief executive officer of the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service (OAMS), Jamie Newman.
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“In the 10 years the OAMS has been operating we have reached a point where we have engaged 90 per cent of the Aboriginal community in Orange and district and that is a significant result,” Mr Newman said.
“Our success in this is driven by the Closing the Gap initiative,” he said.
Eight years ago the federal government launched Closing the Gap, a strategy designed to reduce indigenous disadvantage particularly in the areas of life expectancy, child mortality, access to early childhood education, educational achievement and outcomes.
Mr Newman said calls by some Aboriginal elders to dispense with Closing the Gap due to lack of progress in reining in poor health statistics would be counterproductive when many measures are already making a difference.
Mr Newman said the collaborative approach of the Orange Health Service (OHS) and the Western Local Health District working closely with OAMS has resulted in an unprecedented health engagement with the indigenous community.
“Health issues have evolved over many decades when there wasn’t the collaboration and the partnerships we have now to improve health outcomes,” he said.
“But what we can do now is to take a look at the major issues and review them, looking at strategies to build on what we have accomplished in the last eight years,” Mr Newman said.
Senior medical officer at the OAMS, Dr Steven Peterson said he is proud of the work being undertaken in a number of programs at the health centre.
“For example our statistics at 92 per cent for child vaccinations is above the non-Aboriginal population,” he said.
Orange Health Service general manager Catherine Nowlan said there has been a strategic focus to link with OAMS to Close the Gap utilising a series of strategies and linking partnerships that includes the emergency department medical director working with OAMS, diabetes services, healthy lifestyle programs and more.
“It is great to receive this feedback as our approach is to effectively contribute to Close the Gap across the two services to support the health of Aboriginal people,” Ms Nowlan said.
