Proceedings : 11th National Rural Health Conference

The 11th National Rural Health Conference was held at the Perth Convention Centre, 13-16 March 2011. The plenary and concurrent papers are available at the conference website. The theme of the conference was 'Rural and Remote Australia: the heart of a healthy nation'. The speakers included Tom Calma speaking about the health and wellbeing of Australia’s first peoples; Colleen Hayward talking about the importance of the social determinants of good health, and Sam Prince reporting on his aspirations for improving rural and remote health by eradicating one disease at a time – beginning with scabies. Delegates from overseas include: Amanda Sheedy from the People’s Food Project Canada speaking on Engaging Citizens in Policy Development; speakers from Papua New Guinea and Timor L’Este on health in the Pacific Region. Other issues of importance include recurring natural disasters, the ongoing closure of rural hospitals, the long term sustainability of rural communities, the sorry state of oral health and the lack of aged care and mental health facilities in the Bush.