Contents 
| Contents |
Title page | Letter of transmittal | Editorial team, contributors and referees | Contents | Preface
Australian Government Publishing Service
Canberra
© Commonwealth of Australia 1996
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced without written permission from the Australian Government Publishing Service. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be directed to the Manager, Commonwealth Information Services, Australian Government Publishing Service, GPO Box 84, Canberra ACT 2601.
ISSN 1032-6138
ISBN 0-642-24706-4
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 1996. Australia's health 1996: the fifth biennial report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Canberra: AGPS.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 1995. Australia's welfare 1995: services and assistance. Canberra: AGPS.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 1994. Australia's health 1994: the fourth biennial report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Canberra: AGPS.
Board Chair
Professor Janice Reid
Director
Dr Richard Madden
The Institute is an independent statistics and research agency within the Commonwealth Health and Family Services portfolio. Established as the Australian Institute of Health in 1987, its Act was amended in 1992 to expand its role to study welfare-related information and statistics. The Institute's mission is to inform community discussion and decision making through national leadership in the development and provision of authoritative and timely information and analysis on the health and welfare of Australians and their health and welfare services.
Cover design by Kate Barry
Text editing by Janette Whelan Publishing Consultancy
Published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Printed by the Australian Government Publishing Service
| The Hon. Dr Michael Wooldridge MP
Dear Minister The Institute is pleased to present to you Australia's Health 1996, a report covering those aspects of Australia's health and health services for which data are currently being collected either nationally or in some States and Territories. The report is required under the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987. Yours sincerely
14 June 1996 |
John Donovan (Editor) Michael de Looper
Amanda Nobbs Stefanie Pearce
Lena Searle Andrew Smith
Christopher Stevenson
Bonnie Abraham Bruce Armstrong
Tony Barnes Stan Bennett
Kuldeep Bhatia David Brennan
Knute Carter Ching Choi
Ingrid Coles-Rutishauser Warwick Conn
Michael Cook Mark Cooper-Stanbury
Joan Cunningham Michael Davies
Michael de Looper John Dolinis
John Donovan Edouard d'Espaignet
Diane Gibson John Goss
Tony Greville John Harding
Jenny Hargreaves James Harrison
D'Arcy Holman Tony Hynes
Paul Jelfs Paul Lancaster
Ian Lester Ros Madden
Colin Mathers Nigel Mercer
Jerry Moller Lynelle Moon
Peter O'Connor Ruth Penm
Ray Cripps Chris Stevenson
Fearnley Szuster Richard Trembath
Anne-Marie Waters Richard Webb
Bruce Armstrong Ron Borland
David Burrow Rob Carter
Marylon Coates Ching Choi
Helen Christensen Annette Dobson
John Donovan John Glover
David Graham Philip Harvey
Roy Harvey Scott Henderson
John Higgins Ian Jeffrey
Don Lewis Ros Madden
Paul Magnus John McCallum
Jack McLean Geoff Marks
Colin Mathers John Moss
David Neesham Louis Pilotto
Janice Reid Ian Ring
Ross Saunders Sid Sax
Dick Scotton Chris Selby Smith
Fiona Stanley Peter Vulcan
Peter White
The Institute wishes particularly to thank those people from other bodies who have contributed to Australia's Health 1996.
Australia's health status is generally improving. Australia's Health charts this success story since 1988. Now in its fifth edition, it shows numerous population-wide indicators of lengthening life expectancy and lower incidence of many previous major sources of death and illness.
Importantly, Australia's Health goes far deeper than this. It looks at population groups whose experience is different and at continuing and new sources of information on illness and mortality. Notably, the continuing, endemic low health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is described, along with some gains that have occurred in their health. For the first time, reliable data on Aboriginal mortality is in Australia's Health 1996, although unfortunately this is only for South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. I hope that, by 1998, all States and Territories will have produced this essential information.
Like its predecessors, Australia's Health 1996 is a compendium of information which forms a record of health status, service provision and expenditure that is complete and easy to read.
Australia's Health and its companion, Australia's Welfare, are the cornerstones of information on contemporary health and welfare issues in Australia. The legislative charter to produce these biennially, and to have them tabled in Parliament, gives the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare clear direction in its mission to inform community discussion and policy debate on health and welfare issues in Australia. The Institute intends to keep these publications at the forefront of its work, to summarise scattered information, to ensure contemporary issues can be debated against a background of factual and objective information, and to provide guidance on areas of need in Australia.
The contributors to Australia's Health 1996 are too many to thank individually. As in 1994, the editor has been John Donovan, the Institute's Principal Medical Adviser, who has worked tirelessly for many months, to write, to cajole all the contributors, and to edit the pieces to make a readable whole.
Australian health information can be made more effective in the next few years without requiring large-scale additional funding. Duplication of collections, notably in respect of hospital inpatients, is significant for both the providers of data and the collection agencies. Improvement in the consistency of definitions and classifications will help national comparability and benchmarking. There is also a strong argument for secure linkage of records of treatment provided to an individual by several services, for both clinical and statistical uses; the community's growing sensitivity about confidentiality and privacy must be carefully addressed as a prerequisite for progress.
The Institute looks forward to leading the development of Australian health-related information and welcomes feedback on the value readers find in Australia's Health 1996.
Richard Madden
Director
