Selection of main data sources for this project
While patterns of primary health care use are most often captured by looking at administrative data on those who used services, administrative data on service use only captures ‘met need’; that is, data on service users are unable to count people who may have needed a service but were unable to access it. Administrative data also do not measure the quality or appropriateness of the care received. Exploring these other factors requires analyses of survey and/or qualitative data.
This project uses data from the 2018–19 NATSIHS collection (ABS 2019)[1] to look at a number of key variables in the primary health care journey from the perspective of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It supplements these findings with a spatial analysis on the geographic accessibility (as measured by drive times) of different types of primary health care services.
Note: The results from the next NATSIHS collection (2023–24) are expected to be released in late 2024.