'To date 600 general practices have taken part in the program and have achieved outstanding results in the  care of diabetes and coronary heart disease patients,' said Dr McKelvie. 'The program involved  identifying patients and systematically ensuring each person was receiving the best care. Results and methods are shared so everyone benefits from good ideas in overcoming the barriers.

'There have been between 28-132% improvements in patient  care which translates to many heart attacks, amputations, renal dialysis, strokes and early deaths prevented. All this was achieved with a budget of only $15 million or so. Last year the budget was doubled so the successful program could be expanded to cover even more practices and their patients but now Labor has cut the budget back to $14.4 million.

'At a time when Australia is facing an ever increasing burden of chronic disease we should be doing all we can to prevent it and the associated complications.

We welcome other budget measures to address prevention of tobacco and alcohol related disease, drugs, obesity and the development of a national preventive health strategy, but these should not happen at the expense of a very successful program' said Dr McKelvie.

'Australians would prefer to see improvements in health than to receive a tax cut worth the cost of a cup of coffee. I would certainly prefer to see healthy people walking the streets than seeing a flash new warplane in the sky'.

For further information please contact: Malcolm McKelvie 0417 364 615

Greens Candidate for Gippsland Byelection

www.cgn.org.au/Malcolm_McKelvie

gippsland@greens.org.au