Health service attendance patterns in an urban Aboriginal health service.

Objectives: To describe the health service attendance patterns of urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Aboriginal) Australians and make comparisons with those of the general Australian population.

Design And Setting: General practitioner-completed survey of all attendances over two separate 2-week periods in 2006 at an urban Aboriginal health service in Canberra, which provides services for about 3500 patients per annum.

Main Outcome Measures: Standardised attendance ratios (SARs) for a range of health problems, using patients attending Australian general practice for the same reasons as the reference population.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health assessments - barriers to improving uptake.

Background: This study investigated the reasons for low uptake of Medicare Benefits Schedule rebated health assessments for Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders in mainstream general practice in the Australian Capital Territory region.

Method: Surveys gauging attitudes to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health issues were completed by 145 general practitioners, practice and division staff, and semistructured interviews were conducted with 16 staff members from nine general practices.

Results: Survey responses indicated concerns about introducing routine identification processes for all patients.