Page 4214 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 21 September 2010

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identified. The format of the ACT Chief Health Officer’s report 2010 has changed from previous years in response to readers’ comments. The report is more concise and will have a stronger web presence with links to relevant information.

The ACT population has high life expectancy in comparison to other jurisdictions, and this is expected to continue to increase. Mortality rates are declining for many of our leading health concerns, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma and diabetes, and the infant mortality rate in the ACT continues to decline.

The ACT has experienced a declining age-standardised incidence rate of lung cancer in males and cervical cancer in females. These decreases are largely a result of public health interventions, such as the reduction in risk factors—for example, smoking—and early detection and treatment—screening. I am pleased to report that there has been a significant increase in breast cancer survival in the ACT. This is most likely due to early detection and treatment of breast cancer.

Communicable diseases are well controlled in the ACT. The ACT has prevention and management plans in place to effectively detect and manage outbreaks of communicable diseases. In 2006-08, immunisation coverage was well above the national average.

The ACT is showing some encouraging trends for some known risk factors for ill health. Smoking rates in ACT secondary school students between the ages of 12 and 17 are decreasing. There has been an overall decline in illicit drug use amongst ACT secondary students, and levels of risky alcohol consumption in both adult males and females has reduced to below national rates.

While these trends are encouraging, the report identifies areas of focus that will require further attention and effort. The report shows that the demographic profile of the ACT population is shifting towards an older profile. This shift will result in an increase in the number of people with age-related chronic conditions in our community. This in turn will result in heavier demand for health services. In preparation for this trend, the ACT government has strengthened efforts in primary disease prevention and management through the implementation of a number of strategies and programs that aim to reduce the prevalence of chronic diseases.

The clinical services plan 2005-11 provides the strategic framework for the delivery of ACT public hospital and community services, based on predicted changes to the ACT population. ACT Health planning has identified infrastructure requirements to meet future clinical service development to 2022. The social factors that influence health continue to yield favourable results for the ACT compared to Australia in general. ACT residents have generally higher weekly earnings and education attainment levels than the national average. However, this social and economic advantage often masks pockets of disadvantage. Ensuring that marginalised groups have equitable access to health services and opportunity for health gain is imperative.

Strategies such as the development of service models that encourage ease of access and the building and strengthening of cross-sectoral partnerships to assist greater continuity and coordinated care are examples of how these issues are being addressed.


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