Regional health
Overview
Home to more than three million people and representing about one third of the New South Wales (NSW) population, regional NSW encompasses all regional, rural and remote areas. The concept of rural, regional and remoteness can be considered using different classification methods. In NSW, there are 15 Local Health Districts (LHDs) responsible for providing health services in a wide range of settings, from primary health care posts in the remote outback to metropolitan tertiary health centres. Nine of these LHDs are classified as regional. Another framework for classifying regional areas that is widely used in Australia is the Australian Statistical Geographic Standard (ASGS) remoteness categories, where Statistical Areas are grouped based on their Accessibility/Remoteness Index for Australia Plus (ARIA Plus) score. The ARIA Plus is a remoteness index value (or score) based on road distance to major service centres. The ASGS remoteness categories include: major cities, inner regional, outer regional, remote and very remote. Many HealthStats NSW indicators can be viewed by LHD, by Regional Health Districts and by remoteness categories. Further information about these frameworks is outlined in the data considerations below. The following Local Health Districts are classified as regional: To learn more about data in your local health district, click on the relevant link above. To learn more about regional health data, see the A-Z list of indicators below.
The NSW Regional Health Strategic Plan for 2022-2032 is specific to regional, rural and remote communities and will guide NSW Healths strategic focus for the next 10 years. The plan is a roadmap for the future provision of health services that understands, and celebrates, the diverse and unique nature of regional communities.
The plan aligns closely with Future Health: guiding the next decade of care in NSW 2022-2032 which provides the strategic framework and priorities for the whole system over the next 10 years. Continued collaboration and alignment of the plan with Future Health will lead to shared outcomes that improve regional health services and health outcomes for people living in regional, rural and remote NSW.
Regional and metropolitan areas can be defined based on geography or involve other concepts relating to population size and level of urban infrastructure development. HealthStats NSW includes analyses that use both these definitions.
The Remoteness category is used across indicators on HealthStats NSW, and is based on the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia Plus (ARIA plus) to determine levels of regionality/remoteness (that is, major city, inner regional, outer regional, remote and very remote). ARIA plus measures remoteness in terms of access along the road network from populated localities to each of five categories of Service Centre based on population size. If one thinks of ARIA as based on the distances people have to travel to obtain services, then populated localities are where they are coming from, and Service Centres are where they are going to (The University of Adelaide, 2023).
The concept of Regional NSW is geographically based on aggregates of Local Health District administrative areas used by NSW Health for service delivery. It includes areas within the regional Local Health Districts and Albury Wodonga Health including: Central Coast, Far West, Hunter New England, Illawarra Shoalhaven, Mid North Coast, Murrumbidgee, Northern NSW, Southern NSW, Western NSW. The HealthStats NSW indicators that appear below can by viewed by Regional Health District.
Another index of remoteness is the Modified Monash Model (MMM), used by the Department of Health and Aged Care to define whether a location is a city, rural, remote or very remote, however this is not used in HealthStats NSW indicators. The ARIA categories and MMM categories have boundaries that are different from the Regional Health Districts described above.
The data shown in these indicators comes from a variety of sources, including acute care datasets (e.g. emergency department presentations and hospital admissions), population surveys, cause of death datasets, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
For other specific considerations, refer to the data notes in each individual indicator.
Data for Moree Plains LGA
Related Resources
Data Report
Strategy
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