The Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) has backed a new report from the Grattan Institute released today, agreeing that Australia is headed for a chronic disease nightmare unless the Federal Government acts.
The Grattan report, ACDC: Highway to Health, highlights the increasing number of people living with and dying from preventable disease. It urges the Government to ensure chronic disease prevention is a priority for the promised Australian Centre for Disease Control (ACDC).
Adjunct Professor Terry Slevin, CEO, Public Health Association of Australia, agrees and urges the Government look beyond the here-and-now of hospital beds and treatments and address the bigger picture, before it's too late.
"This new report hammers home the incoming tsunami of chronic disease," he said.
"More Australians are getting sick with preventable disease. Today, almost one in two Australians live with chronic disease, and the burden of chronic disease has increased by 38 per cent over the past three decades. We are facing an influx of preventable deaths and disability.
"It's ironic that Governments are spending more and more money treating sick people, while investment in measures that stop people getting sick in the first place has remained low.
"Even during the height of the pandemic, total Government spending on prevention was just 3.7 per cent of the total health budget, well below the modest 5 per cent recommended in the National Preventive Health Strategy.
"We welcomed the Labor Party's 2022 election promise to create an Australian Centre for Disease Control with chronic disease prevention as a central remit. The potential was simple – it was a move that would help stop people getting sick.
"2023 is the perfect opportunity for the Albanese Government to deliver on its election promise and create a meaningful legacy that will keep future generations healthy – if they get it right from the onset.
"The forthcoming centre must have prevention and the National Preventive Health Strategy as a key priority from the get-go. It's crucial that it also has substantial funding, the right legislative framework, immunity from political and commercial interference, and the ability to build collaboration across states and territories.
"As Australia is the only OECD country without a Centre for Disease Control, we need a body that can look beyond today's demand on health services and plan for the future.
"The Grattan Institute estimates that to fund a similar disease control body to those in Finland and Norway would cost up to A$600 million in Australia, and that's the sort of figure public health experts will be anticipating in the May 2023 Federal Budget."
"In this essay, I explain why if the ACDC is to genuinely fulfil its potential, the early budget allocations will need to be in the hundreds, not tens, of millions of dollars."
