Australian health review : a publication of the Australian Hospital Association
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Australia is a multicultural society in which migrants from non-English-speaking backgrounds may be more vulnerable to illness after their new settlement, and language difficulties and cultural differences may affect their use of health services. The present qualitative study used focus group interviews to explore the health services used by Chinese migrants from Hong Kong and China. ⋯ The paper reports specific differences between migrants from China and Hong Kong, and by age group. It discusses reasons for these findings and notes the implications.
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The Home Based Rehabilitation Service was established as an allied health early discharge and outreach service from a major metropolitan post-acute teaching hospital. Two hundred and eighty-two patients were discharged to the service according to established criteria from the following specialities: neurology, neurosurgery, rheumatology, amputation, orthopaedic and spinal. ⋯ The cost of home-based services was 11 per cent of the cost of the inpatient services they replaced. There were low rates of hospital readmissions, and users registered high levels of satisfaction with the service.