National Close the Gap Day – March 24
RAHC is part of the effort to improve Indigenous Health
24 March 2011
Today is National Close the Gap Day. The Remote Area Health Corps (RAHC) is committed to closing the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
RAHC is part of the effort to improve Indigenous health by recruiting and supporting urban-based health professionals to fill short-term placements in remote Indigenous communities across the Northern Territory. Since establishing in late 2008 RAHC has facilitated over 800 placements of GPs, nurses, dental and allied health professionals.
RAHC placements have also contributed to over 3145 weeks of additional primary health care service being undertaken in remote NT health centres. This equates to more than 78 full time health professionals working a year each in the NT.
RAHC’s important contribution to supporting and expanding the health workforce in Indigenous communities is in direct response to requests from the remote Indigenous health services in the NT.
RAHC health professionals are providing support to the hard working staff in remote health centres in many ways, including allowing permanent staff to take leave or undertake professional development as required. They are also filling gaps while long-term recruitment is underway and assisting in the expansion of service delivery in areas such as preventive health and chronic disease management.
The number of health professional completing multiple placements with RAHC is continuing to grow with over 55% of placements being filled by health professionals doing two or more placements and new requests to return to the NT being received by the RAHC team everyday.
