As the UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy pledges to focus on the global climate and nature emergency, the upcoming Summit of the Future aims to envision better ways of responding to the world’s many challenges.
The column this week also brings reports from public health, rural health and psychiatry conferences, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health news, science communications tips, and global health updates, as well as details of awards, important inquiries and events likely to be of interest for Croakey readers.
The quotable?
Bill Whittaker’s passing is a profound loss to the HIV community in Australia and around the world. His legacy of compassion, advocacy, and unwavering commitment to health equity will continue to inspire and guide our work. From his early days as ACON’s first CEO to his later roles in national leadership, Bill’s impact on HIV policy and community support has been immeasurable.”
Addressing racism
Cultural safety and racial equity strategies should be embedded in healthcare organisations’ governance and leadership structures, strategies, systems and processes, according to a new position statement released this week by the Australian Medical Association (AMA).
Further, these strategies should be supported by appropriate funding and resources, and co-designed by people with lived experience of racism, it says.
The AMA’s Anti-racism statement urges healthcare organisations to extend cultural safety and racial equity strategies to employment and training, including recruitment and hiring practices, monitoring and retention practices, and cultural accommodations to support staff with lived experience of racism.
As well, healthcare organisations must commit to monitor, evaluate and report on anti-racism practices, programs and policies, and provide meaningful racism, diversity and bias training for all staff with built-in organisational performance and accountability measures to monitor progress, it says.
They should ensure staff know how to effectively respond to racist behaviour from colleagues, supervisors, auxiliary staff and patients, and how to report racist behaviours. There must be a safe, confidential and transparent avenue for reporting.
“The actions taken by organisations to respond to reports of racism must also be timely, transparent and accountable,” says the statement.
The AMA says the statement confirms its “zero tolerance approach towards racism in medicine and the Australian healthcare sector as well as its commitment to working collaboratively to eliminate racism within the health system”.
The statement discusses the nature and impact of racism on medical practitioners in the healthcare environment, with a specific focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander doctors and international medical graduates.
It cites the 2023 National Medical Training Survey, which found 54 percent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander trainee doctors had experienced or witnessed bullying, discrimination and harassment, including racism, compared with 21 percent of all trainees nationally.
The statement says the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association (AIDA), Australian Medical Council, Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, and Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care have strongly stated that cultural safety is a key priority for addressing racial inequities in workplaces.
Under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, there is a legal obligation for practitioners, regulators, accreditation authorities, educators and employers to ensure the development of a culturally safe and respectful health workforce that is responsive to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their health, and contributes to the elimination of racism in the provision of health services.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Medical Association is to apologise for past harms to Indigenous people by medical professionals (see this 2016 Croakey article on a similar apology by the Australian Pyschological Society, and this 2022 article on an apology by the Council of Deans of Nursing and Midwifery).
Planetary health
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has promised that “action on the climate and nature crisis will be central to all that the Foreign Office does”.
Announcing the appointment of new UK Special Representatives for Climate Change and Nature, he said diplomatic efforts addressing the climate and nature emergency would have three priorities:
- Building a Global Clean Power Alliance to make Net Zero Power a reality, everywhere
- Unlocking much, much more climate and nature finance
- Reversing the decline in global biodiversity.
“Biodiversity loss is as much of a threat as changes to our climate,” he said in the Kew Lecture, his first major foreign policy speech.
“And with nature loss undermining progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, action on nature is also pivotal to genuine partnerships with the Global South.”
Lammy described Indigenous communities as “nature’s best custodians”, and said his goal was to maintain a liveable planet for ourselves and future generations.
“Ultimately, there will be no global stability, without climate stability. And there will be no climate stability, without a more equal partnership between the Global North and the Global South.”
His comments come as communities around the world face horrific fires, flooding and other extreme weather events.
Summit of the Future
How can global institutions be re-booted to do a better job of addressing the world’s many pressing problems? This question is at the heart of the Summit of the Future, to be hosted by the United Nations in New York this weekend.
In a preview article, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said global problems are moving faster than the institutions designed to solve them.
“Ferocious conflicts and violence are inflicting terrible suffering; geopolitical divisions are rife; inequality and injustice are everywhere, corroding trust, compounding grievances, and feeding populism and extremism. The age-old challenges of poverty, hunger, discrimination, misogyny and racism are taking on new forms,” he said.
“Meanwhile, we face new and existential threats, from runaway climate chaos and environmental degradation to technologies like Artificial Intelligence developing in an ethical and legal vacuum.”
At the same time, international decision-making is stuck in a time warp, with many global institutions and tools being a product of the 1940s – an era before globalisation, before decolonisation, and before widespread recognition of universal human rights and gender equality.
“The victors of World War II still have pre-eminence in the UN Security Council while the entire continent of Africa lacks a permanent seat,” said Guterres. “The global financial architecture is heavily weighted against developing countries and fails to provide a safety net when they face difficulties, leaving them drowning in debt, which drains money away from investments in their people.
“And global institutions offer limited space for many of the major players in today’s world – from civil society to the private sector. Young people who will inherit the future are almost invisible, while the interests of future generations go unrepresented.”
The message is clear, said Guterres: “We cannot create a future fit for our grandchildren with a system built for our grandparents.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/19/cop31-climate-conference-australia-hosting-bid
Global health
The Lancet: Advancing the economics of health for all
Addressing gender inequalities in national action plans on antimicrobial resistance
This publication says that national action plans on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) often overlook the critical intersection of gender, despite evidence that exposure and susceptibility to infection, health-seeking behaviours, as well as antimicrobial prescribing and use patterns are all influenced by gender.
It proposes 20 recommendations for policy-makers to consider when developing, revising, implementing or monitoring their national action plans on AMR. Each recommendation should be tailored to individual country contexts and needs.
A few points of note:
- Overall, women are 27 percent more likely to receive antibiotics throughout their lifetime than men.
- Female doctors tend to adopt a more conservative wait-and-see approach to prescribing antibiotics compared to their male counterparts.
- Antimicrobial stewardship recommendations made by male pharmacists are more likely to be accepted than those made by their female colleagues.
https://www.who.int/news/item/18-09-2024-fifa-and-world-health-organization-launch-global-concussion-awareness-campaign 
https://shorturl.at/BSRYO
Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine Position Statement: Breastfeeding in Emergencies
Recommended reading via The Marshall Project: She Ate a Poppy Seed Salad Just Before Giving Birth. Then They Took Her Baby Away.
Inquiries of note
Details of the inquiry are here.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health news
Productivity Commission report
Awards
Conference Watch
The theme of the Australian Public Health Conference (17-19 September): ‘High value public health in a complex world’.
The 17th National Rural Health Conference (16-18 September)
Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Conference New Zealand (18-20 September)
Public health
#AusPol
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has published an information paper in advance of the first experimental National Ecosystem Accounts in 2025.
The accounts will measure and value Australia’s ecosystems, showing the contribution the environment makes to Australia’s economic and social wellbeing. They are being developed with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and CSIRO. 
Vale Bill Whittaker
Statement, 2 September, 2024
It is with deep sadness that Health Equity Matters and the National Association of People with HIV Australia (NAPWHA) note the passing of Bill Whittaker, a visionary leader and tireless advocate in Australia’s community-led response to HIV.
Bill Whittaker’s journey with HIV began in the earliest days of the epidemic, before effective treatments were available. His personal experience fueled a lifelong commitment to improving the lives of those affected by HIV and shaping policy responses both in Australia and internationally.
Throughout his distinguished career, Bill held pivotal leadership roles in key organisations. He served as the first CEO of ACON (AIDS Council of New South Wales), a member organisation of Health Equity Matters, from 1986 to 1990.
Upon stepping down from this position, Bill took on the role of President of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (now Health Equity Matters) from 1990 to 1992, and again from 2000 to 2003. He also served as a NAPWHA special representative from 2013 until the present day. These positions allowed him to drive significant advancements in HIV policy, treatment access, and community support.
Bill’s contributions to the HIV response span decades and have left an indelible mark on our communities. In the 1980s, Bill was at the forefront of pioneering harm minimization strategies, which have since become a cornerstone of Australia’s public health approach to HIV prevention. His early work laid the foundation for many of the progressive policies that followed.
During the 1990s, Bill played a crucial role in advocating for increased access to antiretroviral treatments, helping to ensure that life-saving medications reached those who needed them most. His efforts during this period were instrumental in shaping Australia’s response to the evolving HIV treatment landscape.
Bill’s advocacy work was vibrant and effective over the last two decades. In 2012, he led groundbreaking initiatives around CD4 count testing, which significantly improved the monitoring and health outcomes of people living with HIV. Bill’s ongoing commitment to enhancing the quality of life for those living with HIV was exemplary.
In recent years, Bill was instrumental in efforts to increase access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), a game-changing tool in HIV prevention. His advocacy in this area has helped to revolutionise HIV prevention strategies in Australia and beyond.
Beyond Australia’s borders, Bill was heavily involved in the international HIV response, sharing knowledge, building partnerships, and advocating for global action against the epidemic. His influence extended far beyond our shores, contributing to the global fight against HIV/AIDS.
Bill Whittaker’s passing is a profound loss to the HIV community in Australia and around the world. His legacy of compassion, advocacy, and unwavering commitment to health equity will continue to inspire and guide our work. From his early days as ACON’s first CEO to his later roles in national leadership, Bill’s impact on HIV policy and community support has been immeasurable.
We extend our deepest condolences to Bill’s family, friends, and all those whose lives he touched. His impact on our community and the broader field of public health will be remembered for generations to come.
• Croakey’s Melissa Sweet also extends condolences and respect, in warm memory of Bill and his longstanding contributions to advocacy and policy.
Events upcoming
