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She said this threatened the future of programs aimed at educating young people and their parents about the dangers of vaping,and inclusive sport services run by the centre for children with disabilities.
Smoking rates are at their lowest levels in decades,but the rapid uptake of vaping – especially by young people – in Australia has alarmed experts,along with a worrying rise in black marketvapes online and at hundreds of convenience stores around the country.
The organisation,which has onsite GPs,also provides support for adults with disabilities,Victorians with mental health issues and aged care services.
“We hear from parents and schools all the time that they’re extremely concerned about vaping,” she said. “We’ve got communities that are deeply worried about the fact that their kids can’t participate in sport because the sport sports clubs aren’t disability inclusive. This is going to have a really devastating impact for us.”
Public Health Association of Australia CEO Terry Slevin said while he did not know the details of the proposed cuts,he was shocked by any move to reduce health funding in Victoria and urged the government to reconsider.
“The disgracefully low investment in public and preventive health is not sustainable,” he said. “Now is the worst possible time to reduce funding in public and preventive health.”
“I hope that these announcements are wrong and the Victorian government would not be so foolish as to reduce its already under-investment in health prevention.”
Slevin said reducing funding for programs that prevented chronic diseases did not make “any health or economic sense”.
While it is understood the cuts are in the millions of dollars,the exact figures remain unclear. The government did not provide this information,despite requests fromThe Sunday Age.
In a statement,a Victorian government spokesman denied the cuts were part of cost-saving measures for the incoming health budget in May. He said the changes in funding were elements of last year’s budget that were only being implemented now.
“They do not represent a cut to health services,” he said.
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However,this has been disputed by chief executives at community health organisations,including Robinson,who said she and her counterparts were blindsided by the calls on Friday.
“This was the first time that we were aware that any cuts were even proposed,” she said.
Robinson said it was her understanding that the cuts would be made from a more than $30 million pool of funding set aside to tackle chronic diseases such as obesity and for preventative health programs.
Community Health First,a lobby group of 24 independent community health services in Victoria that is pushing the government to increase investment in the sector,criticised the decision as short-sighted. The group is calling for the proposed cuts to be reversed.
“It will reduce health promotion spending now,but will ultimately result in increased costs elsewhere in the health system in years to come,” a spokesman for the group said.
It is estimated more than 550,000 avoidable presentations to Victorian emergency departments could have been diverted had primary or community healthcare been available,according to a recent report by the Productivity Commission.
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