Last week’s Royal Commission hearings in Broome (WA) focused on delivery of aged care services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) and remote communities.
On the second day of hearings, Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) CEO, Dr Martin Laverty (pictured), explained the RFDS operates in around 220 remote communities delivering “Medicare-like” services – including home care or RAC services.
But as an emergency healthcare provider, the RFDS is not resourced to provide 24/7 care to any remote communities. Instead, most are visited once or twice a month.
Dr Laverty says the key to understanding the failure of remote primary health service delivery is looking at “avoidable hospital admissions” (AHAs).
Nationally, the average for AHAs for non-Aboriginal people is 27 per 1,000 people. But in the very remote Kimberley region (WA), the number of AHAs for Aboriginal people is 75 per 1,000 – almost three times the national average.
Between 2014 and 2017 the RFDS conducted over 23,000 emergency air retrievals for over-65s from remote areas to be flown to hospital.
The most common age-related cases were cardiovascular disease, injuries (largely due to falls), and digestive illnesses – all of which are “preventable and treatable”, says Dr Laverty, but the primary health services just weren’t there.
“For too long, we’ve said small populations, a shortage of medical workforce, is the reason we have inadequate access. I reject both of those reasons”, he said.
