Bendigo Community Health Services is supporting a Victorian Healthcare Association campaign called ‘We Stand With Community Health’ in the lead up to the Victorian election in November.
The #standwithcommunityhealth campaign was launched at Star Health in Melbourne today.
The focus will be raising awareness of the role community health services play in Victoria and getting all political parties to pledge support for a number of ‘asks’ in the lead up to the election, including:
- New community health centres where the public need them.
- $60 million every year to improve outdated facilities.
- Increased funding to enable community health services to keep pace with a growing population.
- Better leveraging community health to reduce pressure on Victoria’s public hospital emergency departments.
- Support for community health services to provide an even stronger health safety net for vulnerable Victorians.
- Increased public dental funding, so people can access care when they need it.
These ‘asks’ were chosen after VHA consulted with community health services to determine the biggest needs across all platforms and for this reason do not just reflect our priorities alone.
We have raised the importance of prevention and the need for a workforce strategy to attract health professionals to regional areas and these will be included in our local discussions with our sitting members and candidates.
We have written to Bendigo MPs, candidates and large organisations seeking campaign support.
While we will have information for consumers in the foyer areas of our sites, if you have anyone ask about the campaign please refer them to the official website www.standwithcommunityhealth.org.au
Please share your experience with community health
Social media is a major part of the campaign too so if community health has had an impact on you at any time we would love to hear your story. Please post your experience on social media with the hashtag #standwithcommunityhealth or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so we can share on our platforms.
Finally, a huge thanks to everyone who supports Bendigo Community Health Services to allow us to do what we do for the community. Thank you one and all.