Delivery of maternal health care in Indigenous primary care services: baseline data for an ongoing quality improvement initiative.

Background: Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) populations have disproportionately high rates of adverse perinatal outcomes relative to other Australians. Poorer access to good quality maternal health care is a key driver of this disparity. The aim of this study was to describe patterns of delivery of maternity care and service gaps in primary care services in Australian Indigenous communities.

Delivery of child health services in Indigenous communities: implications for the federal government's emergency intervention in the Northern Territory.

Objectives: To describe delivery of child health services in Australian Aboriginal communities, and to identify gaps in services required to improve the health of Aboriginal children.

Design: Cross-sectional baseline audit for a quality improvement intervention.

Setting And Participants: 297 children aged at least 3 months and under 5 years in 11 Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, Far West New South Wales and Western Australia in 2006.