Australian health review : a publication of the Australian Hospital Association
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While many studies investigated the higher morbidity and mortality levels of indigenous Australians in the high-density indigenous areas in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia, few examined the situation in New South Wales, where more than 28% of the indigenous population lives. Admissions to acute public and private hospitals in New South Wales for 1989-1995 are used in the study reported here to examine indigenous health and its differential patterns by disease categories. ⋯ Age-standardised estimates for the indigenous population are provided. Age composition of admissions for each disease category and admissions by residential area are also estimated.
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The optimal way of delivering specialist services to rural and remote Australia, and particularly to remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, is a matter of keen debate at present, and is being considered by the Australian Medical Workforce Advisory Committee. This paper contributes to that debate by considering one specialist medical group, namely adult physicians, and discusses both their role and optimal number in the Top End of the Northern Territory, in light of the general workforce literature and recent changes to the organisation of physician services in the Northern Territory. Models of specialist service delivery need to be explicit, and organisational methods transparent, if the service is to be equitable, flexible and accountable to primary care practitioners.