Australian Medical Association

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said today that the Government must reject calls for independent nurses to be allowed to carry out ‘healthy kids’ checks in Child and Maternal Health Centres.

Dr Pesce said the health of our children is far too important to allow these health checks to be 'dumbed down'.

“General practitioners and their practice nurses, in close collaboration, are the appropriate people to be conducting these health checks, and they are conducting them diligently and skilfully,” Dr Pesce said.

“Allowing people other than doctors to perform 'healthy kids' checks independent of doctors would further fragment health care and would erode the quality and safety of child health care,” Dr Pesce said.

The AMA has renewed calls for an immediate ban on the advertising of unhealthy food during children’s viewing hours.

AMA President, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, said obesity was becoming more prevalent in children, and urged government to act on advertising that targets children and unhealthy food.

“The health of Australia’s children, now and into the future, is of paramount importance. Food advertising influences what food children want, ask for, and eat,” Dr Capolingua said.

“Food advertising undermines the efforts of parents to provide healthy food for their children.

The AMA congratulated Family Services Minister Jenny Macklin and Professor Fiona Stanley, Chair of the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth, on the launch today of a major report that will enhance the delivery of child protection services throughout Australia.

Launched in Melbourne, the report Inverting the Pyramid, aims to both recognise the pressures on current child protection services and focus on the changes that are needed to improve those services.

AMA President, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, said the report properly focuses on the fact that it is not just governments that have responsibility for child protection across the community. The non-government sector has a big role to play.

AMA Position Statement: Developmental Health and Wellbeing of Australia's Children and Young People - 2003

Today's news that the rate of childhood obesity in Australia has not increased in the last decade must not detract from the urgent need to reduce childhood obesity.

Research results released today by the University of South Australia found that obesity rates among children levelled off in the late 1990s and have remained steady since.

AMA President, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, said this was good news but not the answer to the overall problem.

Towards a National Policy for Child Abuse and Recovery

This position statement focuses on the effects of poor health on the educational attainment of Indigenous people, and the reciprocal impacts of poor education on health. A number of recommendations are made to address this relationship.