Sunshine Coast Division of General Practice

INDIGENOUS HEALTH

CLOSING THE GAP
It is well known that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people suffer worse health than non-Indigenous Australians. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience a burden of disease two-and-a-half times that of other Australians. A large part of the burden of disease is due to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease and chronic kidney disease. This can be reduced by earlier identification and management of risk factors and the disease itself.

The Sunshine Coast is home to approximately 4,100 (ABS) Indigenous Australians. SCDGP works in partnership with North Coast Aboriginal Corporation for Community Health (NCACCH) to provide GP services to their members via a brokerage model. With 44 practices and 243 GPs (50% of all GPs in the catchment) participating, Indigenous residents have consistent and ready access to high quality mainstream health care services. SCDGP has a commitment to improving the health status of our Indigenous residents and the Closing the Gap (CTG) funding provided by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) is one vehicle that is supporting primary care providers.

The Closing the Gap initiative is providing payments through the Practice Incentives Program (PIP) Indigenous Health Incentive (IHI) to support general practices to provide better health care for Indigenous Australians. This includes best practice management of chronic disease.

Further assistance is provided through the Subsiding PBS Medicine Co-payment Scheme; which reduces the cost of medicines for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients living with, or at risk of, chronic disease.

Improving the health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is a priority at all levels of the health system. Closing the Gap objectives is to support General Practice to:

understand and increase awareness of the Closing the Gap Indigenous Health Initiative
increase the uptake of Indigenous specific MBS items including Indigenous Health Checks
consistently identify Indigenous Australians
provide culturally sensitive primary care services

In addition, at a local primary health care level, SCDGP is undertaking to:

engage six CTG PIP IHI registered practices to focus on prevention with their Indigenous patients, utilising best practice guidelines
build Indigenous workforce capacity
work with local hospitals to provide surgical intervention procedures for Indigenous children with hearing loss problems

For further information on Closing the Gap initiatives, please contact Karen Mills at the Division.