Summary

This report provides an update on the health services provided by Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS), using data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's Online Services Report (OSR) data collection and the national Key Performance Indicators (nKPIs) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care.

The findings show some encouraging improvements.

  • Between 2012–13 and 2014–15, ACCHSs increased their primary health care services, with:
    • the total number of clients rising by 8%—from 316,269 to 340,299
    • the number of Indigenous clients rising by 9%—from 252,038 to 274,848
    • the number of episodes of care provided rising by 19%—from 2,425,568 to 2,893,050
    • the number of episodes of care provided to Indigenous clients rising by 23%—from 2,053,992 to 2,519,078.
  • Between December 2012 (or the first period data were collected) and December 2014, the proportion of ACCHS clients rose for 10 of the 16 relevant nKPI process-of-care indicators. These were:
    • antenatal visits before 13 weeks of pregnancy
    • birthweight recorded
    • health assessments for those aged 0–4 and 25 and over
    • smoking status or alcohol consumption recorded
    • clients with type 2 diabetes or aged 50 and over who were immunised against influenza
    • clients with type 2 diabetes who received a General Practice Management Plan or Team Care Arrangement.
  • ACCHS clients also showed improvements for 3 out of the 5 nKPI outcome indicators with trend data. These were:
    • the proportion of clients with type 2 diabetes whose glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) result was less than or equal to 7%
    • the proportion of clients with type 2 diabetes who had a blood pressure result in the previous 6 months of less than or equal to 130/80 millimetres of mercury (mmHg)
    • the proportion of clients aged 15 and over who were recorded as current smokers.
  • The distribution of ACCHSs generally closely follows the distribution of Indigenous Australians.
  • While areas close to Major cities and in Inner regional areas have the highest density of ACCHSs, Remote and Very remote areas have the highest number of ACCHSs per Indigenous person in the population.
  • The spatial distribution of the number of clients reflects the distribution of the Indigenous population (there are higher numbers of clients where there is also a larger population). However, in a small number of statistical areas level 2 in the Kimberley, Arnhem Land, north eastern Northern Territory and Cape York, there are large Indigenous populations but relatively small numbers of clients.