People living in remote rural areas

The State of Rural Health

Rural life has inherent difficulties associated with it. Services tend to be concentrated in urban areas where the population base is large enough and the geographical area small enough to make service delivery efficient and affordable. Distance is the greatest debilitator for many rural people.

The health of populations living in rural and remote areas of Australia is worse than of those living in capital cities and other metropolitan areas. Mortality and illness levels increase as the distance from metropolitan centres increases. Relatively poor access to health services, lower socioeconomic and occupational status and employment levels, exposure to comparatively harsher environments and occupational hazards contribute to and may explain most of these inequalities. Also, a large proportion of the population in the more remote parts of Australia are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, who generally have poorer health status. 

(Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Australia’s Health 2000, page 223).

The number of health care professionals in an area is an important factor influencing the health status of country Australians. Although over the course of 1998-99 there was increasing recognition of the problem of diminishing health services in rural areas, essential health services are still lacking in many areas.

Availability of general practitioners (GPs) in rural areas is well below that of the cities. In 1998, small rural centres averaged 93 GPs per 100,000 population; other rural areas had 77 and remote areas 68. All country areas were well below capital cities, which averaged 122 GPs per 100,000; other metropolitan areas and large rural centres averaged 107 and 110 respectively.

(Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Medical Labour Force, 1998).

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