Royal Australian College of GPs
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has welcomed changes that will expand the range of health professionals who are able to register eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to a program that affords access to cheaper medicines.
The Closing the Gap (CTG) Prescription Benefits Scheme (PBS) Co-payment programwas established in 2010 to improve access to affordable PBS medicines for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living with, or at risk of, chronic disease.
Under the new changes now in effect, any PBS prescriber or eligible Aboriginal Health Practitioner can register eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for the program.
The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Report made over 200 directives about improving the health of people in prisons in its 339 recommendations in 1991. One of these recommendations included additional funding to provide better health services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in prison.
Yet, there are virtually no staff skilled in engaging with cultural protocols in health services in prisons. And current policies and procedures do little to extend cultural care to families when the death of an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person in prison has occurred.
The royal commission and the United Nations recommend people in prisons have access to health care equivalent to what is available in the community. However, the system is still strained, as the multiple deaths of Aboriginal people in custody in recent months, inquests revealing gaps in health care, and a health report tabled to NSW Parliament make clear.