KNOWING the Hunter is facing a steep rise in chronic illness due to an ageing population, Hunter New England Health is planning a strategy to cope.
That's wise. Without thoughtful preparation, the anticipated surge in chronic disease could overwhelm the public health system.
This is an instance where the proverbial ounce of prevention will certainly prove to be worth more than its weight in reactive treatment.
While some of the additional burden of illness is likely to be unavoidable, some may be averted or diminished in severity by appropriate early intervention.
It is possible, for example, that sound dietary advice and education might reduce the future burden of a variety of conditions including diabetes and heart disease.
Continued efforts to cut smoking rates - particularly among younger women who have in recent years been bucking the wider social trend against tobacco addiction - should reap results in reduced lung cancer and cardiovascular disease rates.
Campaigns against alcohol abuse, programs aimed at encouraging healthy exercise and carefully targeted efforts at early detection of some cancers all fall into the same category of interventions with potential to save the health system of the future millions of dollars.
Another strategy being considered is an expansion of community-based services. Properly designed and adequately staffed, such services have the potential to prevent acute hospitals being overwhelmed by people with chronic ailments. A wise approach would be to create those community networks now, generating a core of expertise that can be rapidly expanded in future as demand grows.
Recognising these facts is one thing, but acting on them is another. The practical problem that always seems to arise with community care and preventative health-care programs is that those in charge of allocating resources find it difficult to spend money on anything other than reactive medical and surgical care.
The obvious scale of the future challenge demands that the plans being developed by health service strategists are funded and implemented now, while the opportunity still exists to experiment with programs and models in an environment of relatively light demand.
Speed zone go-slow
IT is frustrating for schools and communities that the Roads and Traffic Authority seems too slow in installing measures to slow traffic in school zones.
According to the NSW Auditor-General, the Government has missed its own target for speed cameras near schools, with the RTA criticised for not making the zones visible enough.
Any motorist will attest that the flashing signs installed at some schools are a highly effective reminder to slow down. The more usual plain signs tend to fade into roadside clutter, especially since the school zones only operate twice a day on school days.
Knowing this, there is no good excuse for the failure to have flashing signs at every school on a major road.
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