Media Release
28 January 2010
Crikey is right: the real priorities in health are outside the cities
Writing in Crikey yesterday, Bernard Keane argued that the real priorities in health are mainly
outside cities. He is right – a man born in a disadvantaged part of western New South Wales
can expect to live about 11 years less than one born in an affluent Sydney suburb.
Seventy per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live outside the capital cities
and their life expectancy is 13 to 17 years less than it is for Australia's non-Indigenous
peoples.
Those in rural and remote areas are, in aggregate, both older and poorer while a greater
proportion have a disability compared with their major city cousins. People in non-
metropolitan areas also experience more health risk factors such as obesity, smoking and,
perhaps surprisingly, the adverse effects of a sedentary lifestyle.
Access to health services is much poorer in rural and remote areas, with serious shortages of
doctors, dentists, nurses, allied health professionals such as podiatrists and experienced
managers.
The National Rural Health Alliance welcomes the fact that Prime Minister Rudd has promised
2010 will be a year of major health reform. The estimated seven million people living in rural
and remote areas will support any reform aimed at improving their current level of health and
the health services to which they have access.
However, the Alliance also agrees with writer Bernard Keane that health reform must not
default back to “who funds hospitals”. The more important question is how we can provide
people in regional communities with better health services.
There are some clear improvements that can and should be made. No need to wait for a Grand
Plan on health reform – early investment can start with the 2010-11 Budget.
Contacts
Dr Jenny May - Chair: 0427 885 337
Marshall Wilson - Media: 0419 664 155
NEWS 
