'Tyranny of distance' still plaguing remote health care

Thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people need to travel more than an hour to visit a primary health care service. There are 131 of 412 Indigenous areas where more than 200 people live more than an hour's drive from one or more health services, data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare said. Of these 131 service gap areas, there are 14 where more than 200 people live more than a one hour drive from any primary health care service. "For Aboriginal people in remote and really remote areas it's been a really well-known challenge, what we call the tyranny of distance," the institute's First Nations Health and Welfare Group head Fadwa Al-Yaman told AAP. "Thirteen of the 14 of the areas where the drive time for services is more than one hour are in remote and very remote areas of the NT and WA. "If you have to drive more than one hour, that's one hour there and one hour back, clearly that's too long so we regard that as lack of access." Findings of the Australian Bureau of Statistics National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey 2018-19 found 99 per cent of an estimated 814,000 Indigenous people had access to some form of health service in their area. The survey revealed more Indigenous people live in areas with a mainstream general practitioner rather than an area with an Aboriginal Medical Service - (85 per cent versus 67 per cent). Those living remotely were more likely to have an Aboriginal Medical Service in their area, with 60 per cent of people in very remote locations only having access to an Aboriginal Medical Service. Almost half of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people nationally, (48 per cent) said they would prefer to get their health care from an Aboriginal Medical Service, while 43 per cent preferred a mainstream general practitioner. Ms Al-Yaman said preference for an Aboriginal Medical Service was more common in certain groups. "Mostly these people were living in remote and very remote areas, slightly higher in females than in males," she said. "It was also higher for people who experienced unfair treatment in the last 12 months, which makes sense and really highlights the importance of culturally safe care." Most Indigenous people (87 per cent) had seen a general practitioner in the past 12 months, while one per cent had never visited the doctor. Less than half (44 per cent) had seen the dentist in the past 12 months and there were 12 per cent who had never had a dental visit.