Pharmacy Daily | Blow for preventative health

THE Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) has launched a campaign to save VicHealth after the Victorian Government announced it will effectively shut down the world's first health promotion foundation and place its preventative health functions within the Health Department.

Closing VicHealth will prove a disaster for the health of the people of Victoria and must be reversed, the country's peak body for public health said, claiming it "almost guarantees that prevention efforts will all but disappear".

While acknowledging that caring for people who are sick and injured will always be an important and immediate priority, the PHAA pointed out that reducing the commitment to preventing diseases of the future consigns more Victorians to need those urgent, and often costly, health treatment services.

The move will also have impacts at national level, due to VicHealth's role in a broader coalition of health promotion agencies from other states, sharing insights and expertise to address local and national challenges.

"I make a personal plea to Premier Allan," PHAA CEO, Adjunct Professor Terry Slevin said.

"Please think beyond the immediate pressures, and do not fold one of the world's leading preventive health agencies into the health department where the enormous pressures to address the urgent will inevitably shrink commitment to the important work of thinking and acting on initiatives to stop Victorians getting sick in the first place."

Joining the call are five former Chairs of VicHealth, representing a broad political spectrum and different eras of VicHealth's work, who have penned an open letter to the Victorian Premier, Treasurer, and Health Minister.

Among them were former Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon, who was Chair of VicHealth until recently, and former State Liberal Minister Mark Birrell.

The legislation establishing VicHealth in 1987 included three members of Parliament on the board to ensure long-term, multi-party support, the signatories noted.

"It was envisioned to extend beyond the life of the government of the day, or financial pressures of the moment, and has done so with distinction for nearly four decades," they wrote, calling on the government to "urgently re-consider this course of action".