Access all Areas: a report about primary care in rural and remote areas - shortcomings

News fom NRHA: This report has created substantial interest. It deals with critical issues and shines a spotlight on the serious workforce inequities in many rural and remote areas. The report under-states the difference between rural and remote circumstances, with some of its solutions not taking account of the quite different models of care that operate in remote areas. Models of primary care not based on fee-for-service medicine are the norm in remote areas.

The NRHA welcomes the prospect of multidisciplinary health care models as long as they are well-evidenced and sustainable. Nurses, Aboriginal Health Workers, allied health professionals and paramedics are in a great position to contribute more, with the shortage of positions in rural and remote areas being one of the main barriers.

The Grattan Institute's report is too dismissive of efforts to recruit and enhance the rural health team with these existing professionals. There is no 'quick fix' for improved access to primary care in rural and remote areas, but Access all areas provides a useful insight into some of the critical issues.

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Does remoteness affect socioeconomic status?

It is well known that health outcomes deteriorate with remoteness (or rurality). It is also understood that health outcomes are strongly influenced by a range of social determinants, and therefore by the Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA).

But what is the relationship between rurality and SEIFA? The Alliance is working with other bodies to explore this. In its latest reports, the COAG Health Reform Council published some preliminary data on rates of smoking and drinking at dangerous levels by rurality and by SEIFA quintiles. Read more here.

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Racism as a public health issue

On 11 October 2013, the Lowitja Institute Chairperson, Pat Anderson, delivered a keynote address at the University of New South Wales Public Health Symposium. The address, titled 'Dreaming up the future of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander public health: Racism as a public health issue', highlights racism–whether structural or personal–as a serious public health issue in its own right.

Visit here.

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Disability rates twice as high for Australians with diabetes

People with diabetes are twice as likely to have a disability as people without diabetes, according to a report released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). The report, Diabetes and disability: impairments, activity limitations, participation restrictions and comorbidities, also shows that more serious disabilities are more common in people with diabetes.

Disability refers to any impairment, activity limitation or participation restriction. This could range from minor restrictions in everyday activities to profound sensory loss such as sight. More serious disabilities are described as severe or profound core activity limitations-meaning that a person sometimes or always needs help with one or more core activities of daily living-activities related to mobility, communication and self-care.