The impact of COVID-19 provides powerful evidence for the Government to boost Australia's health prevention measures, the Consumers Health Forum says.
Articles in the latest edition of CHF's ejournal Health Voices underscore how avoidable chronic health conditions have made many patients more vulnerable to the worst effects of a disease like coronavirus.
"We can now see that preventive health will have saved many lives affected by COVID-19, while lack of preventive practices has doomed the lives of many thousands of others around the world," the CEO of the Consumers Health Forum, Leanne Wells, said.
This edition of Health Voices is titled How COVID-19 spurs the case for health prevention and features articles by health leaders and consumers.
"The watershed impact of COVID-19 must surely press home the message of the need for a fresh era in health policy to adopt challenging policies now in areas like obesity for long term benefits," Ms Wells said.
"We made prevention the theme of this edition of Health Voices, before COVID-19 struck, in response to the 10-year target for preventive health set by Health Minister, Greg Hunt.
"Of course, right now the Minister will have much on his mind in pursuing more immediate prevention steps to quell the spread of the virus.
"However, we believe the balance sheet of lives lost and saved in the Australian experience with COVID-19 will bear out the need for a much more active and longterm preventive health architecture in the future.
"Just as the Government has dedicated many billions of dollars to shore up the economy, there must be a reckoning that devoting more attention and resources to prevention health policy into the future will bear huge dividends in healthier lives and healthier budgets," Ms Wells said.
