While the overall situation with healthcare in Gold Coast City and Australia, in general, is much better than in the world in total, there are still unresolved issues. Among them, this is a problem with inequity among Aboriginal and other native populations, which usually have less health literacy and limited access to healthcare (Pearson et al., 2020). In addition, Australia lacks specific policies for a healthy city environment (Lowe et al., 2020). In that way, the main issues are racial inequity and lack of clear policies; the experience of the Alliance for Healthy Cities can help with that.
Gold Coast City Policies
Among the 29 examined documents, 00 are the policies and 00 plans and strategies. Other 00 are licenses, reports, public information bulletins, or contests. For example, there is an ongoing contest Safer Suburbs, which proposes awards to those who help maintain the Golden Coast suburbs safer, as safety is one of the social determinants of health (Gold Coast City Council, 2021). According to the HEART approach, based on the World Health Organization (2010) book, there are four core indicators of health outcome: physical environment and infrastructure, social and human development, governance, and economics. The mentioned contest contributes to social development, increasing safety.
Other documents that contribute to human and social development are the Public Art Plan of the Gold Coast, Culture strategy, Community engagement plan; they all either promote culture or engage community members in beneficial actions. Other examples are Work Health and Safety Policy, Bus Stop disability access upgrade, Smoking in the workplace policy, Accessible & Inclusive City Action Plan, Domestic violence Action Plan, and Housing and homelessness policy. They ensure and maintain order in social life and help those who need it, such as homeless and violence victims. Bus Stop disability access upgrade is an example of both social and infrastructure policy, as it improves infrastructure and helps disabled people to live. City of Gold Coast Annual Report 2020-2021 “Roads to Recovery” is the report that shows the community’s health status, also contributing to human development.
Those documents that contribute to economics are Controlled Entities Policy, Entertainment and Hospitality Expenditure Policy & Procedures, and Community Grants Policy, which also connected with social development, as it proposes grants for social initiatives. Concession for water Usage by renal dialysis patients dialysing at home is another social and economic policy. It ensures rational water usage and helps patients who need renal dialysis. Economic Development International plan and Council of the City of Gold Coast annual plan are both financial plans that ensure rational cost expenditures and investments. Major events Gold Coast annual report is a report about government spending on significant events for each year; thus, it contributes to economics and governance.
Documents that contribute to infrastructure are the Gold Coast road safety plan, Park Usage Policy, Stormwater drainage management plan, Gold Coast city Transport strategy, Gold Coast water strategy, Our natural city strategy. They all direct the development of different infrastructure elements, such as parks, roads, a clean environment, and water access, providing good living conditions for people. Active Transport Plan, Traffic calming Devices policy, and Swimming pool licence are other examples that contribute to infrastructure development. An example of a governance document is Litter and illegal dumbing reduction plan. Other examples are different policies that direct or forbid something, such as Smoking in the workplace policy.
Alliance for Healthy Cities
The Alliance is an international structure, essential for providing healthcare and successful in many ways. Its experience in supplying and implementing policies to ensure health equity is vital for healthcare organisations and governments on different levels because it shows how to create networks between cities (Acuto et al., 2016). One of the main successes of the Alliance is that the good-working policies in the one city that belongs to the Alliance are implemented in other cities. It creates the synergic effect, increasing healthcare quality in all Alliance cities instead of only one (Alliance for healthy cities, 2021). SPIRIT framework, which stands for Setting and Sustainability, Political commitment and Policy, Information and Innovation, Research and Resources, Infrastructure and Intersectoral, and Training, is an essential achievement of the Alliance (Lee & Nakamura, 2021). The recommendation to local governments is to use the experience of the Alliance in producing their healthcare policies.
References
Acuto, M., Morissette, M., & Tsouros, A. (2016). City diplomacy: Towards more strategic networking? Learning with WHO Healthy Cities. Global Policy, 8(1), 14–22.
Alliance for healthy cities. (2021). Alliance for healthy cities. Web.
Gold Coast City Council. (2021). Water quality monitoring programs. City of Gold Coast. Web.
Lee, A., & Nakamura, K. (2021). Engaging diverse community groups to promote population health through Healthy City approach: Analysis of successful cases in Western Pacific Region. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(12), 6617.
Lowe, M., Arundel, J., Hooper, P., Rozek, J., Higgs, C., Roberts, R., & Giles-Corti, B. (2020). Liveability aspirations and realities: Implementation of urban policies designed to create healthy cities in Australia. Social Science & Medicine, 245, 112713.
Pearson, O., Schwartzkopff, K., Dawson, A., Hagger, C., Karagi, A., Davy, C., Brown, A., & Braunack-Mayer, A. (2020). Aboriginal community controlled health organisations address health equity through action on the social determinants of health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. BMC Public Health, 20(1).
World Health Organization. (2010). Urban HEART. World Health Organization, The WHO Centre for Health Development, Kobe.