The National Rural Health Alliance this week highlighted the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report showing that people in regional and remote communities have higher rates of diabetes and related complications than those living in major cities, including both hospitalisations and deaths.
The ‘Diabetes Indicators for the Australian National Diabetes Strategy 2016-2020’ report also shows that rates of diabetes for indigenous Australians are significantly higher than for non-Indigenous Australians.
“Deaths from diabetes are four times higher for indigenous Australians,” Alliance CEO Mark Diamond said. “This is simply unacceptable”.
Mr Diamond drew attention to the higher rates of hospitalisations in remote areas, particularly for pregnant women with diabetes, at 228 per 100,000 women, compared with 27 per 100,000 in major cities.
He highlighted that death rates from diabetes increase the further away from major cities (51/100,000), almost doubling to 92/100,000 in remote and very remote areas.
“Diabetes remains a major issue for the seven million Australians living in regional, rural and remote areas,” Mr Diamond said.
“So much more needs to be done on preventing and managing diabetes in the bush – indeed for all health issues and services.
“These disturbing figures are in line with so many other health conditions, where large variations occur in the health outcomes experienced by people in country areas compared with their metropolitan counterparts.”
Mr Diamond says he believes one of the major issues is a lack of timely, appropriate and affordable access to healthcare for people in country areas. He pointed out that much of the lack of access is driven by the scarcity of health professionals in rural and remote Australia – an issue that needs to be addressed with fast acting and sustainable strategies.
“Diabetes, sadly, is an issue for the whole Australian population but the issue is so much worse in the bush,” he said. “There must be a concerted effort to ensure rural and remote communities can get access to these services in a timely manner.”
For more information, visit: https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/economics/articles/migraine-australia-whitepaper.html
