The Australian Population Research Institute, Research Report, February 2024

It is suggested that the data provides a useful reflection of the effectiveness of the management of ‘ambulant care sensitive conditions’ and that this effectiveness may be declining in the community-based medical sector. [...] This can be altered by feelings of urgency in the patient, the patient’s family, the views of ambulance officers, and any prevailing sense of emergency in the Emergency Department itself. [...] It has to be mentioned that first nations persons comprise 7% of the under 15 age population3 and 11% of ED attendances in each of the first three 5 year cohorts.4 Discussion The OECD position is: “Better, more accessible primary health care results in lower rates of hospitalisations and emergency department use”.5 Australia was found to be in the middle rank in the OECD in 2011 for ED attendance. [...] A Comparison with ED attendance data (Figure 12) shows a pronounced swing to ED among children and adolescents, a small swing towards General Practice in the young working age group, a swing towards ED in those of older working age, equivalence in the 65-84 age group, and in the over 85s a large increase in ED attendance and a very large increase in General Practice attendance. [...] The bulk of the increase in high acuity presentations at ED is occurring in the working age and young population.