Central Australia leads country in avoidable hospitalisations

Alice Springs and the Barkly lead the country for avoidable hospitalisations, according to a new report.

Alice Springs Hospital

THE Alice Springs and Barkly regions have the highest number of people in the country hospitalised for reasons that could have been avoided, according to a new report.

Published by the National Health Performance Authority (NHPA), the report released last Thursday revealed a total of 7500 per 100,000 potentially avoidable hospitalisations in the Alice Springs area in 2011-12, on par with the remote region of Kimberley in Western Australia.

Barkly hit more than 11,000 per 100,000 hospitalisations that could have been avoided.

These rates were seven to 11 times higher than in some metropolitan areas of Australia, such as Canberra, areas of inner Sydney and Hobart, that each saw an average of only 1000 per 100,000 mpotentially avoidable hospitalisations in 2011-12.

The National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA) said these figures were proof of yet another rural health care deficit.

NRHA president Dr Lesley Barclay said the main reason for the high rates of potentially avoidable hospitalisations in rural and remote areas was a lack of effective primary health care.

Because some remote areas, particularly those in the Northern Territory, have no local GP to help manage ongoing conditions, preventable illnesses could reach a critical stage where a patient may need to be hospitalised.

‘‘Diabetes complications could mean you go into a coma because your sugar levels are totally out of control. If you have a GP down the road who checks your blood glucose levels and helps you monitor them, as well as your diet and your insulin, you don’t necessarily get into a crisis that requires hospitalisation,’’ she said.

Dr Barclay, who practised medicine in the NT for five years, said the region suffered significantly because many of the Territory’s services were spread across very small, remote communities, usually led by nurses or Aboriginal health workers.

‘‘Really small communities don’t have a doctor accessible to them,’’ she said.

The NHPA report classified 21 conditions that could lead to potentially avoidable hospitalisations, categorising them into three types - chronic, acute and vaccine-preventable.

The report also showed Barkly had 5000 preventable hospitalisations per 100,000 for chronic conditions in 2011-12 and Alice Springs more than 3000 per 100,000.

The lowest rates were again in metropolitan areas of NSW and the ACT, with about 500 per 100,000 in both areas.

For vaccine-preventable conditions, Alice Springs, the Kimberley and Barkly also came out on top, seeing over five, six and eight times more hospitalisations respectively than urban areas with the lowest rates.

As well as lacking adequate primary healthcare, Dr Barclay said more people in remote regions were suffering from avoidable hospitalisation conditions categorised by the report than in urban areas.

These conditions included diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, all over-represented in indigenous populations.