Health equity – being part of the solution
Dr Curtis Walker
Dame Sue Bagshaw
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virtual conference co-hosted by ASMS and the Canterbury Charity Hospital Trust promises not to be just another ‘talk and chalk’ fest. Speakers and participants will be challenged to come up with tangible solutions and recommendations to take to the Government. The Creating Solutions – Towards Health Equity Outcomes for All conference is the brainchild of Canterbury Charity Hospital Trust founders Dame Sue Bagshaw and Dr Phil Bagshaw. It was born of frustration with what they consider the failure of successive governments to take action and deliver universal access to comprehensive health care. “When you live in a relatively first world country, which is supposedly providing the same services, but one group of people dies eight years sooner than the other – that is shocking,” Dame Sue says. As co-host, ASMS is delighted to be part of the conference, whose themes align with our values.
“When you live in a relatively first world country, which is supposedly providing the same services, but one group of people dies eight years sooner than the other – that is shocking.”
with a scale and intensity proportionate to levels of disadvantage in a population. Dame Sue believes it is an idea that needs to be put on the public radar. “We all know what the problems are, we all know that the pre-determinants of health aren’t working in terms of housing, income and healthy food.” “We also know 20% of New Zealanders can’t afford to go to their GP and if you can’t afford to go to your GP you can’t go to the hospital and see a specialist, and our emergency departments are bulging as a result.” The conference is targeting the health workforce and practising health professionals. Dame Sue makes the point that “we need to get our own house in order in terms of acknowledging our own inherent racism and making sure we are not providing a barrier to health care ourselves”. The new black Medical Council Chair and Palmerston North physician Dr Curtis Walker describes health equity as “the new black”, and believes all New Zealanders want to see fairness of health care and fairness in health outcomes. He will be speaking at the conference on strong clinical leadership.
One of the key areas of discussion will be the idea of proportionate universalism, with a keynote address by British health equity researcher Sir Michael Marmot, a well-known proponent of the concept.
“In each of our roles and organisations, whether it’s as frontline health practitioners or organisations like the Medical Council, we all need to show leadership over health equity and how we can progress it and achieve it,” he says.
Proportionate universalism argues that to reduce steep social inequalities in health, actions must be universal, but
“There are a lot of practical things we can do within our workplaces to make sure that our services are culturally
safe, examining our outcomes to make sure we’re delivering equitably within our services and population.” Dame Sue believes the conference is well timed with the Government about to launch an ambitious programme of health reforms. “We really need to look at how we fund health and ask do we see it as a cost to the nation and the taxpayer, or do we see it as an investment which pays off in the long-term because we have healthier people being employed, doing a better job and ensuring the country develops well?”
“There are a lot of practical things we can do within our workplaces to make sure that our services are culturally safe, examining our outcomes to make sure we’re delivering equitably within our services and population.” In her view the bottom line of the Creating Solutions conference is to increase public awareness of its themes. “We need buy in. It’s about getting people to join the debate, put in their point of view, and say I want to take this on board because it makes sense.” The conference is being held on 2–3 July. It is not too late to register. You can follow the QR code in the poster or go to our website www.asms.org.nz for a full programme and registration details.
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