National Rural Health Alliance E-forum - 6 August 1999

In this issue
* NRHA Submission to Productivity Commission Inquiry into Competition Policy
* Review of Pharmacy Legislation
* Fifth National Rural Health Conference Proceedings
* ICSW Conference
* GP ARIA Web Site
* Human Rights Medals and Awards
* Overseas Recruitment of Rural Doctors
* RHSET Program
* Launch of Major Indigenous Health and Welfare Report
* Education and Health Online
* Contribution and subscription information and disclaimer

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + +

NRHA SUBMISSION TO PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION INQUIRY INTO COMPETITION POLICY

The Alliance provided a submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry
into the Impact of Competition Policy Reforms on Rural and Regional
Australia. The Submission argued that competition policy should be recast
to be more supportive of rural and regional development. The Submission is
available on the Alliance Web site at
http://www.ruralhealth.org.au/compsub.htm.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + +

From: Ian Kinsey <outback_chemist@b190.aone.net.au>
Subject: Review of Pharmacy Legislation

Comments with respect to One pharmacy Towns:

* Limited population-if pharmacy is deregulated, the large majors like
Woolworths
and Coles would concentrate in the Cities and pharmacy would be
marginalised in
the bush, leading to closing of one pharmacy town pharmacies and all
these
patients being covered by "mail order pharmacy".

Obviously this is less than ideal, and would lead to further erosion of
services in the bush. An excellent example has been the deregulation of
the Banks, look how many banks there are left in the bush now! Withdrawing
money is one thing, but how important is your health! Just think with the
strength of Coles Myer, with relationship marketing, they will be able to
get the bulk of patients medication needs, and we the poor old pharmacist
will be expected to offer a service for the occasional acute episode when
mail order, internet pharmacy fall down. Meanwhile, the pharmacist has
packed up shop and moved to the coast because there service was not used,
just like what has happened to the Banks etc. You can not get medication
delivered down a telephone line, unlike electronic banking etc.

The economic survival of one pharmacy towns is based on there being viable
businesses to bind the community together. I don't know of any studies,
but towns with at least a pharmacy, newsagent (also under threat) and a
bank are three minimum requirements to keep a community viable.

The only thing going for a lot of outback towns are they are viewed as a
safe place to retire (note the age distribution of outback towns compared
to regional and metropolitan centres). Maybe this point, the aging
population finding refuge in outback towns is a trend not really
identified. The obvious aging population in these one pharmacy towns need
and demand high quality health provision which a community pharmacy is an
intergral part.

The internet and mail order pharmacy are already large threats to Rural one
pharmacy towns, while not offering a presence physically, really do
threaten rural pharmacy.

Overall, I believe rural one pharmacy towns are the strongest argument for
keeping regulation and promoting the viability of pharmacy as we know and
expect in Australia.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + +

FIFTH NATIONAL RURAL HEALTH CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

The proceedings of the Fifth National Rural Health Conference held in
Adelaide in March have now been published. The proceedings are available
from the Alliance, ph (02) 6285-4660. Proceedings are also available on the
Alliance Web site, at http://www.ruralhealth.org.au/fifthconf/program.htm.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + +

ICSW CONFERENCE

An International Council on Social Welfare Conference on "Social Welfare
and Social Development in the New Millennium" is to be held in Sydney on
September 14-17. Details are at
http://www.acoss.org.au/events/icsw99/announce.htm.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + +

GP ARIA WEB SITE

ARIA (Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia) is an index of
remoteness derived from measures of road distance between populated
localities and service centres. A wide range of service access issues can
be addressed using this index. An application of the index to access to
health services (doctors and hospitals) is at
http://pc137.gisca.adelaide.edu.au/aria/gparia/gparia.html.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + +

HUMAN RIGHTS MEDALS AND AWARDS

On 9 December this year the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
will present the annual Human Rights Medals and Awards to outstanding
Australians for their role in protecting and promoting human rights.
Information is available at
http://www.hreoc.gov.au/news_info/awards/index.html .

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + +

OVERSEAS RECRUITMENT OF RURAL DOCTORS

According to an ABC Media Report, Health Ministers have agreed to
streamline the recruitment of overseas trained doctors for work in rural
and regional areas. The ABC Report is available at
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/stories/s41714.htm .

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + +

RHSET PROGRAM

The Federal Government is seeking proposals aimed at improving the health
of rural, regional and remote Australia under its Rural Health Support,
Education and Training (RHSET) Program. Funding of up to $70,000 is
available for projects that can be completed within 12 months.

"We especially want proposals that will attract and retain health workers
to the bush," Senator Troeth, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for
Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry said. Senator Troeth's statement
is
available at http://www.affa.gov.au/affa/pr/releases/troeth/99/99_69t.html .
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + +

LAUNCH OF MAJOR INDIGENOUS HEALTH AND WELFARE REPORT

A joint ABS/AIHW report "The Health and Welfare of Australia's Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Peoples" is to be launched at the Health
Services Research Conference in Sydney on Tuesday, August 10. The ABS
announcement of the launch is at
http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/d3110125.nsf/4a255eef008309e44a255eef00061
e57/a4074df2e7b92661ca2567c300226495?OpenDocument .

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + +

EDUCATION AND HEALTH ONLINE

The following extracts are drawn from EdNA What's New Email Alert Week: 1
- 7 August 1999. This is a publication of Education Network Australia
advising of Web sites in relevant areas.

3. Education and Health Online
http://www.onlineaustralia.net.au/theme.cfm?theme=education_health
The National Office for the Information Economy, Online Australia 1999
theme pages for 'Education and Health Online' include information on
Australia events, resources, and news.

4. Family Health Line
http://www.familyhealth.com.au/
This site, by one of one of Australia's leading dietitians, features a wide
range of information about food and health. Included are Forums, Health
Topics, Interactive Profile, an online calorie counter, Recipes, Press
releases, Research update, Links, and more.

5. Interactive Health Online
http://www.hol.com.au/
Interactive Health OnLine designs and develops health education products
that are intuitive, functional and user centred. The developers provide
creative solutions to the customers, by using leading edge multimedia
technology and combining graphics, text, video and animation into creative
learning modules.

6. National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Clearinghouse

http://www.cowan.edu.au/chs/nh/clearinghouse/
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Clearinghouse is
an innovative method of collecting, synthesising and distributing an
extensive range of information on Australian Indigenous health. The
Clearinghouse is a dynamic, evolving resource of enormous assistance to
people working to improve the health of Indigenous Australians. It uses the
Internet to make published, unpublished and specially-developed material
about Indigenous health freely accessible to policy makers, service
providers, researchers, students and the general community. The quality of
material placed on the site is ensured through a peer-review process
involving a network of Clearinghouse Consultants.

9. Public Health Resources on the Internet
http://www.hlth.qut.edu.au/ph/phlinks/journals.htm
An extensive list of health and medical journals and newsletters accessible
on the Internet, compiled at the Faculty of Health, QLD University of
Technology. Many of the publications offer full-text articles; others
feature tables of contents or abstracts.

10. Education Lifeline to the Bush
http://www.rhef.com.au/
The Rural Health Education Foundation is a not-for-profit charitable
organisation delivering live interactive television education to rural and
remote health professionals. The programs, covering issues as diverse as
snake bites, youth suicide, gambling, asthma management, men's health,
osteoporosis and so on, are delivered fortnightly to a network of over 450
satellite receiving sites across the nation.

11. Global Health Network
http://www.pitt.edu/HOME/GHNet/GHKR.html
The Global Health Network (GHNet) is an alliance of experts in health and
telecommunications who are actively developing the architecture for a
health information structure for the prevention of disease in the 21st
century. The professionals involved in GHNet bring together expertise from
the essential areas of government, international organizations, business,
and academia.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + +

CONTRIBUTION AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION AND DISCLAIMER

The NRHA e-forum is a forum for the expression of YOUR views. Contributions
are sought on any topic relevant to rural health concerns. Please send
contributions to the moderator, Jim Groves, at grovesc@winshop.com.au.

The NRHA e-forum is edited by a third party moderator, Jim Groves. As such,
the Alliance does not control postings and the contents do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of the Alliance or Jim Groves. Jim Groves can
be
contacted at grovesc@winshop.com.au.

The e-forum is sent to a mailing list of the Alliance and those have
indicated interest through the subscription box at the NRHA Web
site
(http://www.ruralhealth.org.au). This issue is going to 530 recipients.
Please forward a copy to any colleague you think may be interested.

To subscribe, send a message saying "subscribe NRHA eforum" to
grovesc@winshop.com.au. To unsubscribe, send a message saying "unsubscribe

NRHA eforum" to grovesc@winshop.com.au. The archive of the e-forum
is at
http://www.ruralhealth.org.au/newsletter.htm.