National Close the Gap Day 2024 on 21 March!
This National Close the Gap Day, we have an opportunity to send our governments a clear message that Australians value health equality as a fundamental right for all. Our aim is to bring people together to share information, and most importantly, to take meaningful action in support of achieving health equality for First Nations Peoples by 2032
For more than a decade now, Australians from every corner of the country have shown their support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equity by marking National Close the Gap Day on the third Thursday in March each year.
National Cancer Plans to address inequity
In the latter part of 2023 two national cancer plans were announced to address inequity. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cancer Plan (ATSI) was released in late October. It was ‘developed to deliver positive outcomes across prevention, diagnosis, treatment of cancer for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’. This provides a a new foundation for partnership in Australia’s national approach to cancer control.
In early November, the federal health minister Mark Butler announced the release of the first ever Australian Cancer Plan (ACP). Prof Dorothy Keefe CEO Cancer Australia, launched the ACP at Clinical Oncology Society of Australia’s (COSA) 50th Annual Scientific Meeting in Melbourne. The Plan represents ‘commitment to equity for all Australians regardless of background or location.’
The World Cancer Day theme for 2022-2024 is Closing the Gap, a three year campaign for impact, which is about understanding the inequities in cancer care and taking actions to make the necessary progress to address them. Equity in access and outcomes for all those affected by cancer is now the driver for cancer control nationally and is central to our ongoing collaborative work at both the state and national level.
