Modelling access to GPs relative to need in Australia: Geographic variation among First Nations and non-Indigenous populations ... : Geographic variation among First Nations and non-Indigenous populations ...

• Main Author: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2024
• Subjects: FOS Health sciences; First Nations
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25816/397z-m180; https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/indigenous-australians/modelling-access-gps-geographic-variation/summary

How easy it is for Australians to see a General Practitioner when they need to depends on where they live. This is not surprising given Australia’s mix of cities, regional towns and smaller communities spread out over vast areas. However, how easy it is also varies within cities, between towns and from community to community (AIHW 2014, 2015). The AIHW’s index of Access Relative to Need (the ‘ARN index’) estimates how local access to General Practitioners (GPs) relative to the need for primary health care varies across Australia for First Nations people and for non-Indigenous Australians. Output from the modelling underlying the ARN index has been used to identify where timely access to appropriate primary health care is likely to be particularly challenging for First Nations people because of poor physical access to First Nations-specific health care services in combination with poor access to GPs in general (AIHW 2015, 2020). This report presents the recent refinements of the ARN methodology and discusses ...