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Fast Facts

Access to allied health professionals in Divisions of General Practice

In urban areas direct access to allied health services is often taken for granted. In rural and remote areas of Australia access to all health services is much more difficult, whether due to distance, infrastructure or availability. Divisions of General Practice, with funding support from the Department of Health and Ageing, play an important role in providing rural populations with access to allied health professionals (AHPs), access that otherwise may not have occurred.

AHPs delivering services to patients through Divisions can be funded from a variety of sources. The Annual Survey of Divisions (ASD) reports on funding from three main categories: the More Allied Health Services (MAHS) Program, the Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care (BOiMHC) Initiative (both core programs funded by the Australian Government) and ‘programs other than MAHS or BOiMHC'. For each type of AHP the full-time equivalent (FTE) workload is calculated for each funding category as well as all three combined (total FTE).

In 2005-06, almost half of the overall FTE reported was funded by ‘other' sources (285 FTE out of 604 FTE). However, inspection of individual types of AHPs highlights different funding distributions for different AHPs. For example, audiologists were funded solely by MAHS (FTE=0.4). Similarly, large proportions of asthma eductors (63% of total FTE), diabetes educators (62%), dieticians (60%) and podiatrists (60%) were also funded by MAHS. This demonstrates the importance of context on both service delivery and funding and that change to one source of funding could have a large impact on service delivery.

For more details please go to Chapter 6 Access, in the 2005-06 ASD Report

Sara Howard
P: 08 8204 5884
E: sara.howard@flinders.edu.au