{"id":9077,"date":"2022-03-16T11:08:31","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T01:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/staff-news\/?p=5144"},"modified":"2022-03-16T11:08:31","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T01:08:31","slug":"ed-stars-20220316","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/extranet\/facility-messages\/ed-stars-20220316","title":{"rendered":"Message from the STARS Executive Director"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Surgical, Treatment and<\/p>\n

Rehabilitation Service<\/p>\n

Staff Update<\/strong><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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\"Helen

Helen Boocock<\/p><\/div>\n

Tomorrow (Thursday 17 March 2022) is National Close the Gap Day<\/strong>. This day acknowledges the Close the Gap Campaign, which aims to close the health and life expectancy gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation.<\/h3>\n

The health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is significantly poorer than non-Indigenous people. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have poorer self-assessed health, a higher prevalence of long-term conditions and an increased burden of disease, when compared to the non-Indigenous population. Just last week, ABC\u2019s Four corners ran a story that highlights the issues of health equity and access to care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Watch the ‘Heart Failure’\u00a0story here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Acknowledging National Close the Gap Day is an important opportunity to send a clear message that we value health equality as a fundamental right for all and remain committed to targets to Close the Gap in life expectancy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.<\/p>\n

Through our Better Together and Reconciliation Action Plans, and our Indigenous Health Service and Cultural Capability teams, we are working hard at STARS to do our part to close the gap on health equity. Our building was designed to be culturally safe and inclusive, and we are actively working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and their families to deliver care that is person-centred, culturally responsive and improves health outcomes.<\/p>\n

One example of this at STARS is the Better Together Medication Access Scheme (BTMA), which has assisted in reducing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples\u2019 burden of diseases by providing access to prescribed discharge medication from any Metro North Pharmacy with no out of pocket expenses.<\/p>\n

In 2021 we:<\/p>\n