The National Asthma
Strategy Implementation Plan is designed to meet the problems presented by
increasing asthma prevalence and an ageing community as a cost-effective
healthcare intervention. There is a need to accelerate and expand effective
asthma management interventions and research efforts. The focus is on best use of
Australia's finite healthcare resources through asthma prevention and good
health promotion. The Federal Government's proposal to make asthma the sixth
National Health Priority Area will enable the Implementation Plan to serve as a
reference for a three-year asthma program. Asthma stakeholders work
collaboratively, have already achieved measurable, positive health outcomes and
have demonstrated the ability to develop cost-effective interventions and
initiatives.
The organisations in asthma and the relevant professional bodies
have already risen to the occasion and many positive developments are occurring.
A recent significant development in asthma has been the establishment of a
Cooperative Research Centre for Asthma (CRC) with funding from the Department of
Industry. The CRC will conduct research into the causes and prevention of
asthma, examine cost-effective interventions for people with asthma and the
development and commercialisation of technologies for asthma management. Further
improvements and positive health outcomes can be achieved through the
implementation of those strategies within the National Asthma Strategy which
have been identified by stakeholders as being of greatest importance.
An
important emphasis of the Implementation Plan will be to put in place
sustainable interventions which would produce ongoing, improved health outcomes.
Extra financial resources will be needed for this implementation.
Establishing asthma as the sixth National Health Priority Area would give
recognition to the magnitude of the asthma problem, enable consideration of
implementation of some of the National Asthma Strategy, and give deserved
incentive and support to the organisations in asthma, which have already
demonstrated great willingness to continue working collaboratively to improve
the quality of life of people with asthma.
