Indigenous eye health measures 2018

Measure 4.4.1: The number of occasions of service for Indigenous Australians under the Visiting Optometrists Scheme (VOS), per 1,000 population.

Outreach programs are designed to address the uneven distribution of the health workforce and to improve access to eye health services across Australia.

• In 2017–18, there were 29,161 occasions of service for Indigenous patients and 22,666 for other patients under the VOS.
• In 2009–10, there were around 6,975 occasions of service for Indigenous patients under the VOS. This increased to 29,161 in 2017–18. The number of occasions of service for other Australians declined over this period, so that in 2017–18 more than half of VOS occasions of service were for Indigenous Australian patients.
• The number of Indigenous occasions of service under the VOS was lowest in Tasmania (61), followed by Victoria (963), while the highest number was in the Northern Territory (8,753), followed by Queensland (6,843).