Poster Presentation Australian Diabetes Society and the Australian Diabetes Educators Association Annual Scientific Meeting 2017

Introduction:

It is well documented ⁽³⁾ that Indigenous patients with Diabetes have poorer health outcomes and access to services than their non-Indigenous counterparts. Our Primary care setting is located in the rural northern Queensland town of Proserpine, without access to Endocrinologist, tertiary diabetes clinic or Aboriginal Health Services.

Aim:

To demonstrate that an effective primary care team can contribute towards reducing the inequality in health outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous patients with diabetes.

Methodology:

A chart review of patient data was performed, utilising Medical Director software tools. Summary data was then compared against comparable regional and national AusDiab indicators. All 503 regular patients of Whitsunday Doctors Service (WDS) that identified as Indigenous and non-Indigenous people with type 1 or 2 diabetes were included in the search criteria. Fields assessed were most recent HbA1c, Insulin, diabetic nephropathy, and elevated serum cholesterol.

Findings:

The overall mean HbA1c of our 503 patients with diabetes was 6.74%. Amongst the Indigenous subset (17 patients), the mean HbA1c was 7.5%. Across all other parameters comparable to state or national benchmark figures, our Indigenous patients with diabetes had better indicators of diabetes management than their broader cohort, but still have poorer diabetes control than our overall patient cohort as indicated in Table 1.

Table 1

Conclusion:

This observational study demonstrated that the management of diabetes for rural Indigenous patients is not necessarily disadvantaged by limited access to specialist or dedicated resources and health care. Through an effective Primary Care team we are taking steps to Close the Gap for Indigenous people who have Diabetes.