The National Rural Health Alliance, the peak body for rural health in Australia, welcomed the appointment of Associate Professor Ruth Stewart as the new National Rural Health Commissioner.
“Associate Professor Stewart is an excellent choice as she has a long and distinguished career advocating for better health outcomes for people in rural, regional and remote Australia”, said National Rural Health Alliance CEO Dr Gabrielle O’Kane.
“The Alliance already has a good relationship with Associate Professor Stewart, including when she was the President of the Australian College for Rural and Remote Medicine, one of our member organisations.
“We were also pleased to have her present at the 14th National Rural Health Conference in Cairns in 2017.
Dr O’Kane said that the role of the Commissioner was more important than ever with the current challenges facing rural health.
“There is still so much work to be done to ensure that people in rural, regional and remote Australia have equal access to health services and are as healthy as their counterparts in the cities,”
“This includes ensuring that we have a highly-skilled, flexible health workforce in rural areas.
“We thank outgoing Commissioner Professor Paul Worley for his work and look forward to working with Associate Professor Stewart to improve health outcomes for people in rural, regional and remote Australia.”
The National Rural Health Commissioner is a statutory office holder, appointed by the Australian Government to provide policy advice to the Minister responsible for rural health.
The National Rural Health Alliance is the non-government, peak body for rural health, representing 44 member organisations.
