State Government invests in prevention, Federal hospital funding still a worry
June 21, 2016Insurance and Regulation Reform Package 2015
June 23, 2016AMA (NSW) President, Prof Brad Frankum, has welcomed the Greens’ plans for a tax on sugary drinks, saying it should be part of a wider, national obesity prevention campaign.
“Sweetened drinks are never a necessary part of anyone’s diet – there is always an alternative in the form of water.
“Evidence is mounting that taxing sugary drinks helps reduce their consumption and can save lives.
“Reducing people’s intake of sugary – and artificially sweetened – drinks would be an excellent way to reduce the incidence of diseases like type two diabetes.
“And, increasingly, a range of other health problems related to obesity such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and mental health problems.
“This would have flow-on effects like reducing the strong growth in demand we are seeing for acute and emergency health services in Australia.
“It would actually save government spending on health in the long-term,” Prof Frankum said.
“Given that obesity rates are so high in Australia, all doctors are seeing the impacts that this epidemic is having on our health system.
“We also know that the problem is concentrated in lower socio-economic areas, where people are already likely to have poorer access to health services.
“As a doctor working in south west Sydney, this is a reality I see every day,” Prof Frankum said.
“A tax on sugary drinks – and those with artificial sweeteners – should just be the first step in a national obesity prevention strategy.
“This would also include improving access to exercise programs, health education, and, for a small group of people, bariatric surgery performed in public hospitals.
“Inequity of access to bariatric surgery is another way that people’s postcodes can harm their health.
“For some people, it’s entirely appropriate that they have better access to bariatric surgery but at the moment it is nearly impossible to get it done in the public system, in locations where it would be most helpful,” Prof Frankum said.
“The NSW Government has just committed $14 million to childhood obesity prevention but what we really need to see is a national campaign led by the Federal Government.
“A tax on sugary drinks is not lazy policy, it is life-saving policy.
“We have done well in Australia with issues like tobacco control and now we need to take a similar approach to obesity prevention.
“Revenue raised by a tax on sugary drinks should go straight back into the health budget and public health campaigns.
“A successful obesity prevention campaign would be a complex, multi-pronged approach but a tax on sugary drinks would help pay for it,” Prof Frankum said.
Media contact: Lachlan Jones 0419 402 955