Remote Australians are twice as likely to die unnecessarily than city residents

People living in very remote Australia are more than twice as likely to die from potentially avoidable causes compared with those living in a major city, according to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data

Remote Australians are far more likely to die from a preventable cause than those that live in a city.

People living in very remote Australia are more than twice as likely to die from potentially avoidable causes compared with those living in a major city, according to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data.

For every 100,000 people, 91.6 died a potentially avoidable death in a major city compared with 248.7 in very remote Australia in 2017.

This figure dropped to 162.2 for Alice Springs and its immediate surrounds, with coronary heart disease and lung cancer marked as the biggest killers across Australia.

A spokesperson for NT Health said remoteness and low socio-economic status, particularly in the Aboriginal population, were a significant contributing factor to greater rates of potentially avoidable deaths in the Northern Territory.

“We are focused on activities to prevent chronic disease in the NT with attention to early screening and health service access via measures such as Aboriginal adult health check coverage and utilisation of chronic disease management plans,” the NT Health spokesperson said.

A report published earlier this month by the Public Health Information Unit at Torrens University found that patients in remote Alice Springs and the Barkly/Tennant Creek area were being hospitalised for potentially preventable causes at more than four times the national average.

An escalation system has, however, been rolled out across all Top End hospitals over the past year in an effort to enhance patient care in the region.

A two-step process, the REACT system encourages patients, carers and families to raise concerns with a staff member or Aboriginal Liaison Officer if they notice something is ‘not right.’

“Engaging patients and families in patient care helps empower them to work in collaboration with health care providers to put the patient first,” a Top End Health Service spokesperson said.