Indigenous-‍specific health checks during the COVID-19 pandemic

Following several years of growth in Indigenous-specific health checks, the number of health checks delivered decreased in both 2020 and 2021, coinciding with the COVID‑19 pandemic (Figure 1).

Throughout 2020, a total of 242,590 health checks were delivered – a 5.4% reduction compared to the 256,359 health checks delivered in 2019. In 2021, the number of health checks delivered decreased again, down to 229,950, or a 10.3% reduction from the 2019 numbers. Telehealth accounted for a relatively small portion of the health checks delivered; 17,722 health checks, or 7.3%, in 2020 and 6,616 health checks, or 2.9%, in 2021 (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Number of Indigenous-specific health checks, by year, location and telehealth status 2012 to 2021

Most states and territories experienced a decrease in health check services since the national peak in 2019. Proportionally, the largest decreases were in the Australian Capital Territory, where numbers had decreased by 18.9% in 2020 and 39.9% in 2021, relative to the all-time high of 2,012 in 2019; and in Victoria, where the numbers had decreased by 13.6% in 2020 and 22.1% in 2021, relative to the highest recorded annual number of 10,480 in 2019. Tasmania was the only jurisdiction where the number of health checks increased, with numbers up by 19.9% in 2020 and by 19.3% in 2021, relative to the 4,140 health checks recorded in 2019 (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Number of Indigenous-specific health checks and change since 2019, by year, location and telehealth status, 2019 to 2021