Page 4483 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 18 October 2011
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health service and to the members of the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.
Dr Pete, as he was usually known, was a dedicated and passionate member of our community who worked tirelessly for over 20 years to improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the ACT and surrounding region. As Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, I valued the contribution and the difference that he made.
He commenced providing medical services to the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in 1989 as medical officer at Winnunga, as we have heard this morning. When the service started, it had one doctor, two health workers and a receptionist, all crammed into quite a small facility. Now located in the suburb of Narrabundah, Winnunga is an outstanding facility where doctors and other health professionals work together to provide a comprehensive and essential range of health services.
Dr Pete made an invaluable contribution to the holistic approach to health care that is the hallmark of Winnunga. His contributions as a medical officer and subsequently as medical director worked seamlessly with the service’s other health programs and emphasised a whole-of-life focus in relation to Aboriginal health. Dr Pete was instrumental in transforming Winnunga health service into the outstanding health centre that it is today.
It is more than just a medical facility; it is an important community hub offering care and attention in a culturally safe environment. Winnunga has grown and responded to the needs of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, and its wide range of services are now accessed by thousands of clients across the region.
Under Dr Pete’s leadership, the once common problem of hepatitis B infections among the service’s clients has all but disappeared. Childhood immunisation rates are up and birth weights have increased. One particular area of concern to him was the health of prisoners in the ACT and the surrounding region. He had an overriding belief that everybody, no matter what their position in society, deserved high quality, culturally sensitive health care. Dr Pete believed that, despite one’s past, health care remained a basic human right.
In March 2000 Dr Sharp, together with Winnunga CEO Julie Tongs, established a medical outreach program to the Belconnen Remand Centre, and in July of that year at the Goulburn jail. He went on to launch pioneering healthcare programs at Cooma jail and at the AMC. It was due to the sensitivity and understanding that he brought to his work at the Goulburn jail that inmates at other nearby centres requested that Dr Pete be allowed to provide similar services where they were.
Dr Pete was also at the forefront of programs designed to better treat drug addictions and tackle the vastly higher rates of smoking amongst Indigenous people. An indicator of his influence and success in his attempts to reduce smoking can be found in the 2011 Overcoming Indigenous disadvantage report. It shows that the rate of current Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander daily smokers over 18 is the lowest of all
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