OSR – episodes of care

In 2024–25, organisations provided around 4.0 million episodes of care (Figure 9).

The data visualisation below (Figure 9) shows the number of episodes of care for each collection period from 2018–19 to 2024–25. Select by either:

  • organisation type
  • remoteness
  • state/territory
  • Indigenous status
  • sex

to see data for that breakdown.

Data tables supporting this visualisation are available at Data.

Figure 9: Episodes of care by collection period

Overall, episodes of care ranged from 3,509,143 in 2019–20 to 4,019,992 in 2021–22.

Overall, episodes of care ranged from 3,509,143 in 2019–20 to 4,019,992 in 2021–22.

Notes

  1. Breaks are included to separate out the periods most affected by voluntary reporting and the peak of COVID-19 and associated emergency response measures. For more information see Comparisons over time.
  2. For more information, including on interpreting changes over time, see Technical notes.

In 2024–25, of episodes of care:

  • 89% (or around 3.6 million) were provided by ACCHOs
  • 24% (or around 956,000) were provided in Major cities, 21% (846,000) in Inner regional areas, 20% (799,000) in Outer regional areas, 18% (712,000) in Very remote areas and 17% (697,000) in Remote areas
  • 59% (or around 2.4 million) were with female clients
  • 87% (or around 3.5 million) including ‘unknown’ Indigenous status, or 88% excluding ‘unknown’ Indigenous status, were with First Nations clients.

The large increase in episodes of care in 2021–22 was mainly the result of an increase in non-Indigenous clients seeking COVID-related services (for example, vaccinations) in that period (AIHW 2023). This was followed by a return to a more usual service provision in 2022–23. For more information on the impact of COVID-19 see Related material.

Average episodes of care per client

In 2024–25, there was an average of 7.8 episodes of care per client.

ACCHOs had a slightly higher average number of episodes of care than non-ACCHOs (7.9 compared with 6.9).

Female First Nation regular clients had a higher average number of episodes of care than male First Nation regular clients (8.9 compared with 7.1)

Reference

AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) (2023) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific primary health care: impact of COVID-19, catalogue number IHW 281, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 15 November 2025.

Previous page
Next page