Number of health checks

In 2019–20, there were about 247,000 Indigenous-specific health checks provided to about 239,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The minimum time allowed between checks is 9 months, and so people can receive more than 1 health check in a year. Data from the Indigenous primary health care national Key Performance Indicators (nKPIs) data collection suggest that, in spite of only making up about 1.8% of fulltime-equivalent general practitioners (GPs), GPs at Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations conduct nearly half of all Indigenous-specific health checks (AIHW 2020).

Between 2010–11 and 2018–19, the number of Indigenous Australians receiving a health check more than tripled—from about 71,000 to 241,000 patients. Due to the impacts of COVID-19 (AIHW 2020), the number of health check patients dropped slightly in 2019–20 (by about 1% or 2,300 people), ending 8 years of increasing numbers of health checks (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Number of Indigenous-specific health check patients and services by sex and telehealth status, 2010–11 to 2019–20

Line graph showing the number of Indigenous-specific health check services and number of patients between 2010–11 and 2019–20 by sex and telehealth status (face-to-face, telehealth and total). The number of Indigenous-specific health check services provided to Indigenous Australians increased from around 72,000 in 2010–11 to 249,000 in 2018–19. The number of Indigenous Australians who received an Indigenous-specific health check increased from around 71,000 to 241,000 over this period. Patient and service counts then dropped slightly in 2019–20, compared to 2018–19. Refer to table ‘HC01’ in data tables.

References

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) 2020. Tracking progress against the Implementation Plan goals for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013–2023. Cat. no. IHW 201. Canberra: AIHW. Viewed 4 June 2021.