Ms Irene Gibson:

The Senator raised an important point regarding accessibility and supporting people to self-manage their conditions. One of the biggest challenges we have when it comes to prevention of cardiovascular disease is many of the risk factors are silent. Our health system is a reactive system and there are no incentives for people to attend general practice. For the past 20 years or so, much of the Croí's work has been about trying to bring preventative services into the community and reaching hard-to-reach communities, in particular.

There is significant inequality when it comes to accessing services. The highest prevalence of cardiovascular disease is among under-served communities. It is important we look at how we can bring screening services into the community. We know screening in the community works. We have done many projects with the farming community and Traveller and migrant communities, and, without a doubt, early detection makes a huge difference.

It is important we look at universal access to screening services. For many people, unless they have a medical card, they have to pay to go to their GP and have their blood pressure and cholesterol checked. That is a significant problem. I appreciate and acknowledge the great efforts being made in the new GP contract and the management of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, whereby people over the age of 70 are entitled to two checks per year. However, we need to look at shifting and widening that to the group aged over 40, in particular, when risk significantly increases.