The Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) acknowledges the release of the Third Australian Atlas of Healthcare Variation, in which the College made recommendations to appropriately consider people living in rural and remote communities.
The Atlas is produced by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care and was launched yesterday by the Minister for Health, the Hon Greg Hunt.
It explores the extent to which health care differs according to where people live in Australia.
ACRRM President Dr Ewen McPhee says the Atlas’s components in paediatric and neonatal health, cardiac tests, thyroid and gastrointestinal investigation and treatments, as well as patterns in medicines use for four common groups of medicines (antipsychotics, opioids, antimicrobials and medications for ADHD), are a significant consideration to Rural Generalists and rural General Practitioners in how patients are effectively managed in their environment.
“The College continues to support the work of the Australian Commission and is committed to engaging with them to more effectively support and enable the safety and quality of health care in rural communities,” he says.