Professor David Godden, Director, Centre for Rural Health.

Sustainable Rural Health – A Challenge and an Opportunity

Professor David Godden introduced  the research agenda of the Centre for Rural Health (CRH) which covers three main themes:

• health of rural people (mainly epidemiology);
• access and delivery of health services, and
• new technologies in rural health provision. 

David highlighted the fact that health is a key issue for individuals and societies, and that in most surveys of public opinion and in political campaigns health is always top [or close to top] of the agenda. Sustainability of individuals, communities and societies is inextricably linked to health issues, and it is incumbent on us to understand the role that health plays in each of these contexts. Healthcare in rural areas is delivered against a background of increasing healthcare expenditure, prioritisation of issues, demographic change and an increase in chronic illness. 

On the whole, the health of rural people is generally good. But there are specific rural health challenges, for example, agricultural accidents, mental illness as well as leisure related injuries. More dispersed deprivation than in urban areas can lead to an under recognition of health problems and rural incomers often give little thought to health needs. 

A challenge for the sustainability of health services in rural areas is centralisation. The rural population may be too small to provide a workload which will maintain surgical and other skills. However, not all services need to centralise and there are powerful reasons for keeping services local. 

 In conclusion. 

• rural and remote health care has special characteristics;
• planning needs to acknowledge generic characteristics but also allow local flexibility;
• health services in rural remote areas exert a wider societal influence than simple provision of care for the sick;
• the rural working environment provides a number of healthcare challenges and opportunities in testing new models of health provision. 

The streaming audio file will allow you to sample key points from Professor Godden's full presentation. His supporting slide presentation is also available here in Adobe Reader pdf format