RAHC helps ‘Close the Gap’ by filling 500 health professional placements
The Remote Area Health Corps (RAHC) has now filled over 500 short-term health professional placements into remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory (NT) since beginning operations less than 2 years ago.
The Hon Warren Snowdon MP, Member for Lingiari and Minister for Indigenous Health, Rural and Regional Health and Regional Services Delivery joined RAHC health professionals, staff and supporters at an afternoon tea in Alice Springs on Tuesday to celebrate this important milestone.
Minister Snowdon congratulated the RAHC team on the significant contribution the initiative has made to supporting and expanding the health workforce in remote Indigenous communities throughout the NT.
“The Remote Area Health Corps has done a magnificent job in attracting new and returning health professionals to the Northern Territory, and filling over 500 placements in such a short period of time is a great achievement for this initiative.”
“The support and assistance RAHC health professionals are giving to the hard working permanent staff in our remote health centres has been a great benefit to the communities.” Minister Snowdon said.
As part of the celebrations Minister Snowdon presented a Certificate of Appreciation to RAHC’s 500th health professional Kahlia Evans, a dental assistant from the Gold Coast. Kahlia is on her first RAHC placement where she will spend 6 weeks in Alice Springs at the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress Dental Clinic.
RAHC was established to recruit urban-based health professionals, including general practitioners, registered nurses, midwives, dental and allied health professionals to provide primary health care on short-term paid assignments in remote Indigenous health centres in the NT. RAHC supports health professionals throughout their placements, beginning with high quality pre-deployment cultural and clinical orientation programs, through to the in-situ support RAHC staff provide to each health professional while they are in a remote community.
Photo: The Hon Warren Snowdon MP presenting RAHC Dental Assistant Kahlia Evans with her Certificate of Appreciation.
