THE second Australian Atlas of Healthcare Variation, to be formally launched today in Canberra, highlights significant variations in the provision of common health treatments across the country.
Developed by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, the new edition of the Atlas includes a specific chapter on women's health, with a range of treatments examined overall including hysterectomy, cataract surgery, knee replacements and diabetes complications.
The document was developed in collaboration with federal, state and territory governments, specialist medical colleges, clinicians, consumer representatives and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Almost half of the potentially preventable hospitalisations in 2014-15 were associated with five key conditions: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); heart failure; complications from diabetes; cellulitis; and kidney & urinary tract infections.
This indicates a significant opportunity for the health system to improve, with access to effective secondary prevention programs found to significantly reduce the need for hospitalisations.
In fact the new Atlas indicates there were up to 16-fold variations in the rates of hospital admissions for some chronic conditions.
The report will be launched by Martin Bowles, secretary of the Federal Department of Health along with NSW Health secretary Elizabeth Koff, Consumers Health Forum chair Tony Lawson, former AMA president Steve Hambleton and publisher Mia Freedman.
The second Atlas focuses primarily on hospital care and also features a greater focus on data specific to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health as well as maternal and women's health, the social determinants of health and on lifestyle diseases.
To view the Atlas online see www.safetyandquality.gov.au.
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