Policy and Advocacy Library
The library is the culmination of the collaborative work of RACP members and comprises a comprehensive range of evidence-based, published RACP position statements, policies and submissions.
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Description
The RACP submission contains a set of recommendations regarding key areas of the health care and wellbeing care that the Australian Defence Force provides to serving and ex-serving members. The RACP has had long-term involvement with Defence and veteran matters, including mental health and suicide, and many RACP members provide health care to these patient groups.
Description
The Ministry is proposing a number of steps to reduce smoking and smoking harm in New Zealand, including preventing people born 2009-onwards from ever purchasing smoked tobacco products, reducing the number of smoked tobacco product retailers from 6000 to approx. 600, lowering nicotine levels in smoked tobacco products and adding some regulations around vaping products. The RACP supported the proposals to reduce access to and availability of smoked tobacco products but criticised the absence of vaping products in these regulations. Evidence of vaping and nicotine harm is growing, especially in adolescents and young people, and the RACP strongly advised that vaping is included in the regulations being applied to smoked tobacco products.
Description
The RACP and its NSW & ACT Regional Committee are committed to advocating for the development of health policies that are based on evidence, informed by specialist expertise and experience. Our NSW Election advocacy is focused on ensuring the provision of high-quality healthcare accessible to all, integrated across primary, secondary, and tertiary services, as well as across the public and private sectors.
Description
This submission is in response to the Australian Treasury consultation on Measuring What Matters looking at quality of life indicators. The RACP suggests key points and resources needed in a quality of life framework that reflect the social determinants of health, equity and considerations for priority populations.
Description
This summarises RACP recommendations for the Federal Budget 2023-24 in four priority areas of crucial importance to physicians, paediatricians and their patients: health system reform, disease prevention, equitable access to healthcare, and climate resilience. An actionable roadmap is outlined to support the Australian Government as it delivers the Budget on 9 May 2023.
Description
This submission outlines our support for and feedback on the TGA’s proposed reform options in four mains areas: changes to border controls for NVPs; pre-market TGA assessment of NVPs against a product standard; strengthening the product standard regarding minimum quality and safety standards for NVPs; and clarifying the status of NVPs as ‘therapeutic goods’. It also emphasises the need for youth protection and effective vaping regulation in Australia.
Description
This is the second submission the RACP provided to the Medical Board of Australia consultation on the proposed revised Guidelines: Telehealth consultations with patients. It further reinforces some of the recommendations from the previous RACP submission and the importance of adding detail on specific care circumstances and special considerations that practitioners might face as well as examples of potential exemptions that might apply to the Guidelines.
Description
The ACT framework for mandatory medical reporting relates to territory legislation which proposes among other road safety driven initiatives, to allow for a scheme that requires health practitioners to notify Access Canberra when they believe a patient has a permanent or long-term illness, injury or incapacity that may impair their fitness to drive a heavy vehicle safely. Member concerns are put forward in this RACP submission.
See also a previous submission 'ACT mandatory reporting by
health practitioners: Fitness to drive' (September 2022).
Description
The RACP supports the proposals in the Bill which can be seen as strengthening democracy and increasing communities’ opportunity and voice in protecting their whānau from the multiple adverse impacts of alcohol. This Bill puts people before profit and paves the way for more meaningful and fair contribution of community preferences around the availability and proliferation of alcohol outlets.
Description
Precision health may provide an opportunity to improve our diagnosis and treatment of disorders with genetic links, especially as our health system strengthens its digital capabilities. Realising the full (and therefore equitable) potential of precision health, however, would require significant investment in resources such as laboratory capacity and a trained workforce. This would be in addition to existing resource and workforce challenges. The RACP believes addressing the present health system challenges, to support the health reforms and create a more equitable health system, is of a higher priority than exploring advances such as precision health at the moment.