Health cuts open Queenslanders to new infectious disease threats: AMAQ THE incoming Australian Medical Association Queensland president has warned the state could be under threat from new and infectious diseases after the recent significant cuts to frontline health staff. Dr Christian Rowan, inducted today, said Queensland could struggle to deal with new emerging diseases if necessary planning was not undertaken. The health system itself is going through significant changes. There's been loss of staff throughout the public hospital sector particularly in the area of population preventive health which makes us a little bit vulnerable," he said. We need to be conscious of that and continue to prepare. Possible third case of Legionnaires disease He said it had been in the past five years that doctors had seen the emergence of particular strains of viruses which have become very problematic. "The world is very connected now, with transportation what becomes a problem in southeast Asia or America can quickly become a problem in Australia," Dr Rowan said. We certainly need to be planning ... not only for the current infectious diseases that exist but new and emerging ones as well. In all this we need a strong and robust warning system and good planning. With a history in rural health and addiction medicine specialisation, Dr Rowan has been the deputy chief medical officer (clinical ethics and research) for UnitingCare Health and the director of medical services at St Andrew's War Memorial Hospital. He will now be the face of AMAQ, the state's peak medical body that represents public and private specialists to residents and registrars. Dr Rowan said he would particularly like to see a renewed focus on preventive alcohol and drug services, children as young as 11 and 12 presenting with addictions. For the society and the community that's a wake up call that we need to do something about it. It's a disaster not only for the physical and development of someone but the whole community," he said. If you invest in that it's a cost effective investment for not only the health system but the community. There's immense social stigmatisation of people but at the end of the day it becomes a health condition. Having worked as a general practitioner in rural and regional Queensland for over 10 years, predominantly in solo practice and small rural hospitals, Dr Rowan has had significant experience in Aboriginal and indigenous health and has seen first-hand the effect that addiction can have on a smaller community. He said there was no one stereotypical group that suffered from a drug addiction but social, education and geographic factors often played a part in an individual developing the health condition. Now is the time for innovation and particularly clinical innovation - a system redesign to work better for the community. Dr Rowan said he hoped Queensland's health as a whole would become further patient-centric and continued its strong leadership role in medical research. I think anyone can improve and there's always ongoing planning that takes place but I don't think we can ever be resting on our laurels. We need to be ever-vigilant.